Sort of flat spot

[Cannonz]

Hi,

If anyone could shed any light on this problem.
I have a V registered A3 1.8 Sport which seems to have this sort of weird flat problem some times it kind of feels like a miss about 2000rpm and sometimes you can be driving on the motorway at about a steady 70mph give or take then for no apparent reason it feels like someone has switched off the ignition for about 2 or 3 seconds as it sort of coasts with no power whatsoever then miraculously bursts back into life again.
keep on hearing from so called amatuers that talk about all these sensors i.e. airflow camshaft, crankshaft etc, but there are loads of these things in cars nowadays and i don't really want to start buying all these i would rather have someone that could be a bit more accurate.
I love my A3 but i was brought up with the old ford crossflow engines which was easy to fix and you could count on one hand what would be wrong with it and fix it yourself unfortunatley i don't have that luxury with my A3 as the engine compartment looks complicated but i would tackle replacing a part with a haynes manual if someone could point me in the right direction as to what the problem could possibly be.

Any info plz guys
Thanks

 

[jojo]

This sounds like the classic symptoms of a failing MAF(Mass Air Flow) sensor, which sits just after the airbox. Look in the FAQ's section or do a search for 'maf' for more details on how to test it.

 

[Olly_K]

Deffo mass air flow.....these things a prone to "go" on audi's.

I had 5 on my S4 and on my 2nd on my RS4.

 

[Cannonz]

Can you please tell me roughly how much these MAF's costs ? and also are there better one's than those supplied from a dealer.

 

[jojo]

Can you please tell me roughly how much these MAF's costs ? and also are there better one's than those supplied from a dealer.

They are £80 exchange at your local stealers, change it yourself, it takes 10 minutes for beginners, or pay 30 quid for 1/2 hour of stealer labour charges!

 

[dummi]

keep on hearing from so called amatuers that talk about all these sensors i.e. airflow camshaft, crankshaft etc, but there are loads of these things in cars nowadays and i don't really want to start buying all these i would rather have someone that could be a bit more accurate.
I love my A3 but i was brought up with the old ford crossflow engines which was easy to fix and you could count on one hand what would be wrong with it and fix it yourself unfortunatley i don't have that luxury with my A3 as the engine compartment looks complicated but i would tackle replacing a part with a haynes manual if someone could point me in the right direction as to what the problem could possibly be.

for this problem and any future problems get your car vagcom'd and you will know for sure what is wrong.

 

[Cannonz]

I know i'm a little wet behind the ears here since i'm new to audi's but this vagcom your talking about do i have to go to an audi dealer for this if not do you know of anywhere near Glasgow that i could get this test done and if so what's the average going rate for this kind of thing.??

 

[Olly_K]

you dont have to go to an audi dealer, you can buy vagcom here :

http://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/index.html

 

[Cannonz]

Just downloaded software from site, i've ordered the usb connecting cable from ebay for 15 quid, will let you know how things progress

 

[Cannonz]

just got my vag-com 409.1 cable through today lights up ok installed drivers ok done the led test and got the response port status: OK led test complete.
But when i hit the test button i get port status: OK Interface: No Found
any ideas guys...???
Also i've noticed that looking at the vag-com cable only pins 2,4,5,7,10,15 & 16 are connected and looking more closley at the the purple comms connector at the back of the centre console where it plugs into i've noticed that i can only see pins 1,4,5,7,16 connected is there a reason for this..??
please don't tell me that i've got the wrong cable.
Any info plz

 

[j4jon]

Are you definitely using the right COM port? I had the same issue, I thought I was talking to the cable and it said the port status was OK but then wouldn't work in the car. Turned out I was talking to the builtin modem in the laptop!! The cable had been installed as COM port 7 or something, changed that to COM 3 and it then worked fine.