All,

You'll remember the other week when I mentioned I had a sudden drop in power whilst the air-conditioning was switched on. It would now appear that the air-con was not the cause.

Yesterday, whilst driving along the motorway, I experienced the loss of power in an even more abrupt manner, with air-con off.

On planting my right foot, the car just didn't pull at all, all sorts of vibrations were coming from the engine. This continued for 20mins, with car behaving normally one minute, and spluttering about the next.

Anyway, it wasn't in good form, so I called Audi Roadside Assistance on reaching my destination. They were very helpful, and the RAC was with me within 1/2 an hour.

It would seem that my car has developed a misfire, possibly caused by one of the ignition coils being faulty. But the RAC guy couldn't pinpoint the exact cause.

Anyway, the cars in with the dealer first thing tomorrow and hopefully they'll diagnose the problem and fix it.

Just for the record, the car developed this fault at 23800 miles.

Cheers,

AL
Poorly '99.5 A3 1.8TS Silver

 

<p><a href="http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/audis3"><img SRC="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/AudiWorldPics/2000/ravenx_glow.GIF" BORDER=0></a>

 

an intermittent fault which nobody can get to the bottom of.

Hope it is back on song soon - though it'll be sad to lose the Subaru warble!!

David

 

Unlike the rest of Audi<p>2000 A3 quattro
Brilliant Black
Black Leather RECARO seats!

 

You must have a good ear though David, as you said it sounded funny last weekend.

 

Guys,

Got my car back and spoke to the technician who had a look at it. Now this is what he told me, and I'm not sure whether this is Bull**** or not...

<B> The dealer info </B>

They checked the engine on the diagnostics, and no problems showed up. By chance the technician decided to check my air-filter, which of course is a K&N panel filter. His opinion was that the K&N filter was the cause of the problems that I was experiencing. He said the air-mass meter had got a fine coating of oil over it from the filter. [Filter feels as dry as a bone to me.]

The air-mass meter is a "hot film" type. It has an electric current going through it basically. Oil from the filter was getting on this, and not evaporating off, thus affecting the air-mass reading, and causing loss of power. So the guy cleaned the air sensor.

Also, the sealant grease that comes with the K&N, and is applied to rim of air-box is also a no-no. As if a globule came off, and got into the engine, it could cause problems.

The recommendation, try the old paper filter and see how it goes. He doesn't recommend K&N panel filters in Audi 1.8T engines.


<B> The Result </B>

Right, well I have tried the suggestion, with mixed results...

<B>#</B> Under hard acceleration the car pulls strongly, but doesn't seem as revy as it did with the K&N. Also can't hear the by-pass valve / wastegate noise as much now.
<B>#</B> The car/engine no longer shakes at idle, and doesn't splutter/jerk on the motorway on full or part throttle.
<B>#</B> But at low revs, full throttle, the car jerks and lurches violently. Which is quite dangerous when one is pulling away from a roundabout!
<B>#</B> I noticed that the air-mass meter "filament" could be broken, as when blowing on it, it flapped about.

So it's back to the dealer tomorrow.

I'll let you know how it goes. Comments on the above, as always, is welcome.

Cheers,

AL
'99.5 A3 1.8TS Silver

 

i think the audi technician has been eating a bull**** sandwich for lunch - this explaination sounds tenouous to say the least!

 

i would personally use the k&n filter.i know plenty of 1.8 ts running around with k&n filters,no problem.

 

The technician might well have a point. The air flow meter installed after the air filter can get dirty because of a lot of reasons and it is not something that can hold on to a lot of pressure of dirt etc. It is tiny and very easy to damage. It happened to me in a Mazda 323 Turbo 4wd and took us a week to find what was the problem. It was the dirty air fow meter. We changed it to a new one and it took another week to fine tune it to its mechanical optimum. I belive the technician has a point. With the advance electronics of Audi the fine tuning it is not a problem at all. But I belive you should consider a good clean up or a replacement if the problem stays. Please keep in mind the problem is less likely to be caused by the K&N but it might be for a lot more reasons.

 

Took the car back this lunchtime, and took them out in it. Reproduced the low revs, full throttle, jerkiness. They put on the 1552 diagnostic unit, which said the fault was with the air-mass sensor.

However none in stock, but they will be able to get one for tomorrow. It will be replaced under warranty.

I told them I wasn't too happy in driving the car in this condition, and could I have a courtesy car. None available. Anyway I took the car back to work. What happened pulling into the works car park?...engine cut out, lost power steering, brakes the lot! I was not happy. So I've called them back to see if they can get me a car, even if it's a VW Lupo!!

Some good news that will not make David happy, my Krytox has come in, and will be applied tomorrow then they fix the engine problem.

I'll keep you posted.

AL