Engine Cutting Out

[Masterm8fo]

Have a 2001 A3 T Sport and lately the engine seems to just cut out

Initially the idle is a little erratic but it seems to adjust itself after a little while and ticks over ok @ about 750-850
last nite it cut out 5-6 times when driving and obv. depressing the cluth - the revs just drop and it died
this was happening at speeds of 40mph!
the engine temp is normal and system check says no problems encountered and Engine Management light is NOT on

this obv. cud be a little dangerous as the power steering cuts off aswell

what is the problem ??
its nearly on 45k and i know the spark plugs are due to be changed but this cannot be related to that

the Engine Managemtn Computer recorded a fault a few months back and when it was plugged in it had apparently mis-fired in all cylinders - i knew this as it was kinda poppy - had them reset the computer and wipe its memory - hence restoring the standard factory settings and it seemed to pur sweetly and had no more problems - like a different car

am little worried about this new problem though

Please advise gents !

 

[StephenBogan]

Just a guess (as usuall) but could either be a collapsed cat, if this is the case, you need to give the car lots of gas to get it to go anywhere - DONT DRIVE you can seriously do some damage. Or a faulty idle control valve.

Are you getting crap MPG?

 

[Masterm8fo]

not really

am getting 28 but i do race it around

could eaily get better if i was easier on the throttle

 

[foolish3uk]

people call it MASS AIR FLOW but if you go into a mechanic and say that they are likely to look at you strangley, the actuall name is Air Mass Meter!!!

it calculates the amount of air flow through the meter and sends info to the ecu.

 

[benk]

If it misfires quite a lot, it's *possible* that it could be the ignition control unit - this is a small black thing that's bolted on to the side of the airbox. It controls the ignition signals to the spark plugs - it basically receives a small electrical signal which it uses as an "OK" to send the full charge to the spark plugs. Something along those lines anyway.

This may not be your problem at all: I was getting some misfires, and exhaust pops now and then, but never replaced my unit. I did do some electrical testing on it though, and that suggested that the unit was working ok.

You can read more here. If nothing else then you'll know more about your car... http://www.sjmautotechnik.com/trouble_shooting/S4_Ignition.htm bear in mind that this article is about an S4, which actually has 2 of these "Power output stage" units.