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I was showing off my new A4 to a couple friends at work and while looking under the hood, one of them asked about something I couldn't identify: Along the left side of the top of the engine (left as you're facing into the engine bay) there are 8 black things that kind of look like spark plugs. Each one has a wire connected to it, but the wire is much lighter gauge than I've always known plug wires to be. That I wouldn't guess the engine has 2 plugs per cylinder. We also thought maybe they were fuel injectors, but there's no evidence of fuel lines.
Can anyone clue me in on what these "things" are? :-)
I was showing off my new A4 to a couple friends at work and while looking under the hood, one of them asked about something I couldn't identify: Along the left side of the top of the engine (left as you're facing into the engine bay) there are 8 black things that kind of look like spark plugs. Each one has a wire connected to it, but the wire is much lighter gauge than I've always known plug wires to be. That I wouldn't guess the engine has 2 plugs per cylinder. We also thought maybe they were fuel injectors, but there's no evidence of fuel lines.
Can anyone clue me in on what these "things" are? :-)
I was showing off my new A4 to a couple friends at work and while looking under the hood, one of them asked about something I couldn't identify: Along the left side of the top of the engine (left as you're facing into the engine bay) there are 8 black things that kind of look like spark plugs. Each one has a wire connected to it, but the wire is much lighter gauge than I've always known plug wires to be. That I wouldn't guess the engine has 2 plugs per cylinder. We also thought maybe they were fuel injectors, but there's no evidence of fuel lines.
Can anyone clue me in on what these "things" are? :-)
They are variable valve timing actuators.
Last edited by up-n-coming; Sep 7, 2018 at 04:10 AM.
Fair point. I was hoping the things were unique enough to be ID'd just by the description. That and lazy. :-)
Here're a couple pics. The first pic shows the first 3 of them, right under the top engine cover. Second pic is a closeup of the 1st one. The "thing" in question is in the center of the image.
Cool - thanks! (And hopefully my pics confirm that we're talking about the same "things" on the engine.)
I know generally what VVT is but I'll have to research now how it's actually done here.
Understand, I'm coming from a 2004 Subaru. (WRX, and I Ioved it, but it still was pretty low tech even in its time.) So there are many moments of, "No way that's so cool!" right now. :-)
Cool - thanks! (And hopefully my pics confirm that we're talking about the same "things" on the engine.)
I know generally what VVT is but I'll have to research now how it's actually done here.
Understand, I'm coming from a 2004 Subaru. (WRX, and I Ioved it, but it still was pretty low tech even in its time.) So there are many moments of, "No way that's so cool!" right now. :-)
Exploded view of the EA888 gen 3 2.0. Top center of the pic. Pretty sure were talking about the same eight electronic actuators.
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engine question
