Rough First Start -- Cold Engine
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From: Toronto, Canada
Rough First Start -- Cold Engine
Hello All,
I've been noticing that the first start of the day tends to be a little rough. After that the car is fine... haven't seen anything in the VAG logs.
Start the car in the morning, she'll sit at 1,500rpms... once the RPMs dip to around 500 for the first time that's when you feel a strong vibration/stutter in the car. It wont happen again for the rest of the day after that. Any ideas? Think I've read that other people have had this issue
I've been noticing that the first start of the day tends to be a little rough. After that the car is fine... haven't seen anything in the VAG logs.
Start the car in the morning, she'll sit at 1,500rpms... once the RPMs dip to around 500 for the first time that's when you feel a strong vibration/stutter in the car. It wont happen again for the rest of the day after that. Any ideas? Think I've read that other people have had this issue
Thread Starter
AudiWorld Member
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From: Toronto, Canada
Strangely enough... the car can sit 8+ hours at work and start without an issue. Its really just the very first start of the day..
Thanks Bobby
Last edited by TO407S4; Sep 16, 2013 at 12:35 PM.
Thread Starter
AudiWorld Member
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From: Toronto, Canada
I was wondering if I was suffering from carbon build up. I pump ultra 94 so I was hoping it wouldn't build up as quickly. Today I noticed if I gave her a little bit of gas after starting, and let go... when it dropped to 500rpms no stuttering/about to stall feeling...
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From: Bay Area, CA
You have to have quite a lot of misfires before it actually throws the code. When this happened twice on my A4 and once on my allroad, it had to misfire for a good 5+ seconds before it finally decided to light up the CEL.
You could pull a plug or two and check the gap and see what color it is. The plug should be golden brown like a toasted marshmellow. If you have carbon buildup it will be black. If it's a good color and the gap looks fine and the electrode isn't visibly eroded, then it's probably a bad coilpack. You can also put dielectric grease on the plug top to help, but that's only a temporary fix if its a failing coilpack.
Use you vag com to monitor misfires in real time. If you see them happening on the same cylinder, then it's almost certainly a badly worn plug or failing coilpack.
You could pull a plug or two and check the gap and see what color it is. The plug should be golden brown like a toasted marshmellow. If you have carbon buildup it will be black. If it's a good color and the gap looks fine and the electrode isn't visibly eroded, then it's probably a bad coilpack. You can also put dielectric grease on the plug top to help, but that's only a temporary fix if its a failing coilpack.
Use you vag com to monitor misfires in real time. If you see them happening on the same cylinder, then it's almost certainly a badly worn plug or failing coilpack.
Thread Starter
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From: Toronto, Canada
Thanks for the details Bobby... I had my spark plugs changed...not so long ago.. Logs were clean last time I pulled them but I've never done real time logging before... Let me give that a try!
Thanks for all your help
Stupid question.. would you replace just one coilpack or all at that point?
Thanks for all your help
Stupid question.. would you replace just one coilpack or all at that point?
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From: Bay Area, CA
I would just replace the bad coilpack. That's what I've always done in the past and never had more than one fail within 2 years of each other.
To do the real time monitor just find the misfire counters in the measuring blocks under Engine. That will show you every misfire, even below the threshold.
To do the real time monitor just find the misfire counters in the measuring blocks under Engine. That will show you every misfire, even below the threshold.
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Thread Starter
AudiWorld Member
Joined: Dec 2010
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From: Toronto, Canada
Well... I went outside and started the car. I had VCDS connected and watched to see if there were any faults. I would even rev the engine to see if I could get one of the cylinders to misfire. I only saw one misfire the entire time.. I'll keep looking
I couldn't use measure blocks since it was greyed out but was able to do it under advancedUnder advanced I had it looking at misfires since the engine started.
http://www.ross-tech.com/vcds/tour/adv-meas-blocks.html
Thanks again for all your help
I couldn't use measure blocks since it was greyed out but was able to do it under advanced
Under advanced I had it looking at misfires since the engine started. http://www.ross-tech.com/vcds/tour/adv-meas-blocks.html
Thanks again for all your help
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AudiWorld Uber User
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Keep at it. I know from experience that this problem can be extremely frustrating. At least on my A4 you got all six coilpacks in one assembly so I never had to guess which one was the bad one.
Try it first thing in the morning when the car is coldest.
Try it first thing in the morning when the car is coldest.
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I hate to jump in here, but I notice a similar issue only when the engine is cold. I also had a slight issue with idle, but changing the plugs seemed to help with that.
I brought it to the dealer and they said it was normal for Audi's, I said "Seriously dude?" and walked out.
I replaced my plugs and ordered 6 new coils. As I said earlier the plugs helped with my idle a bit, hoping the coils smooth everything else out.
I don't have a VCDS to track misfires but my plugs looked fairly normal.
Engine has 47k.
If that doesn't help I'll be taking apart the valve covers and SC to check for abnormal carbon buildup.
I brought it to the dealer and they said it was normal for Audi's, I said "Seriously dude?" and walked out.
I replaced my plugs and ordered 6 new coils. As I said earlier the plugs helped with my idle a bit, hoping the coils smooth everything else out.
I don't have a VCDS to track misfires but my plugs looked fairly normal.
Engine has 47k.
If that doesn't help I'll be taking apart the valve covers and SC to check for abnormal carbon buildup.