S3 issue when accelerating hard at high speed

pluves1

pluves1

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Just interested if anyone else has experienced this and if so how it was resolved.

I've just replaced my Conti Sport Contact 2's all round with Conti Sport Contact 3's.

The road noise went down noticeably.

However, since getting these tyres fitted my S3 has developed an annoying hestitation when flooring at high speed. It might just be coincidence as I'm sure the problem wasnt evident when the tyres were first replaced.

It sort of stutters and is now back at the dealers in an attempt to resolve the issue. I'm not sure if the tyre change is connected with the problem but, the dealer has had the car for four days now and is busy going through a list of swop overs that Audi HQ has suggested.

I've just heard today that they still can't resolve and Audi HQ have suggested swopping all four wheels out from a new S3 to see if the problem persists.

They think it might be a wheel not 100% round or tyres which is forcing the ESP to kick in at high speed when you have your foot to the floor.

Car is a 2010 model with aprox 21000 miles on the clock and on its 2nd set of tyres. Problem occurs at speeds say in excess of 60mph. If I push accelerator to the floor the car will accelerate and then get to a point where it sort of stutters or hesitates. More noticeable at higher speeds and seems to be doing it more frequently than when I first noticed a few weeks ago.

Car went in for 20k service and problem was mentioned and they replicated but, said it needed to go back for a few days of detective work!

If anyone else has had a similar issue I'd be interested to hear.
 
mm, mighty strange. if there was a flat spot then the tyre would be well out of balance. have they mentioned anything about the dv valve?
 
as DC alludes to... doesn't sound like an issue with the tyres to me.... balancing would have picked that up... more likely to be dv or MAF
 
Mild clutch slip?
It usualy starts under these conditions, ie accelerating in high gears.

Does the rev counter needle give a slight `kick` when it happens?
 
I bet its a coil. I had this the other week along with a couple of others. Wee both changed all of our coils and bam, the stutter was gone! :)
 
PaulAr said:
Mild clutch slip?
It usualy starts under these conditions, ie accelerating in high gears.

Does the rev counter needle give a slight `kick` when it happens?
Click to expand...

One of the first things I thought it might be but, there is nothing indicated by the rev counter needle.
 
Jamiekip said:
as DC alludes to... doesn't sound like an issue with the tyres to me.... balancing would have picked that up... more likely to be dv or MAF
Click to expand...

I doubted it was wheels/tyres but, I guess the dealer has got to try everything Audi HQ is suggesting. As yet I haven't asked them for a list of what they have done but, I will be doing so. Thanks to all those that have responded I will use this as my checklist to see what they have/haven't done.

Dealer seemed to indicate that I wouldn't be getting the car back till they've fixed it!
 
Hey bud does it do it only when the ESP is on? And what gear are you in when you accelerate at 60mph?
 
Thought it worthwhile giving an update on this issue as what I've just seen doesn't really inspire me with great confidence!

Car has been in the dealers now for over 6 weeks. To be fair they've been great and updated me along the way. I wont go into the full list of things they've done but, they were determined to get to the bottom of it as were Audi HQ.

In addition to swopping wheels out and swopping over all kinds of parts they finally resorted to taking the cylinder head off. Bear in mind this car has just over 20,000 miles on the clock and I had hoped to put another 50k on it if I kept it for another two years.

They were checking the valve springs as sometimes the wrong ones can be fitted. In doing so they actually discovered the root of the problem.
The cylinder head for whatever reason is badly carboned up as were the valves. Some of the valves were discoloured a sort of reddish tinge. So Audi have authorised replacment of the cylinder head and a whole bunch of internals along with it.

I managed to get to see my car in bits this morning together with the offending parts. The tech asked me if I'd been using super unleaded - to which my answer was yes. The problems seems to be that they don't know if oil was leaking into the valve area and that is what has caused the carbon build up - so the cylinder head is on its way back to Audi HQ for further analysis.

So if you are experiencing similar problems my advice would be to get it back to Audi sharpish!

The experience has left a sour taste - not because of the way its been dealt - more to do with an issue this bad ocurring so early in the cars life.

So sadly I'll be going back to BMW as my main driver.
 
That does not sound good, and what a lengthy amount of time to be deprived of your car. It sounds as though the dealer has been good to you though, which is some consolation.
 
BOSSS3 said:
Hey bud does it do it only when the ESP is on? And what gear are you in when you accelerate at 60mph?
Click to expand...

I don't turn the ESP off! Any gear but usually 4th upwards and higher revs.

See above for the cause of the problem. The cylinder head coked up wasn't a pretty site:ohmy:
 
Whoa this kinda takes me back to what I saw in Jonnyc's postings of his coking, at least I think that was a problem he highlighted.
 
Thanks for the link, this does sound like the problem i am having but surely at only 1300 miles this can not be right!!! will call audi in the mornin to book in...
 
mojo555 said:
Thanks for the link, this does sound like the problem i am having but surely at only 1300 miles this can not be right!!! will call audi in the mornin to book in...
Click to expand...

Hopefully it wont be the same issue for you.

What fuel are you using and where do you buy your fuel from?
 
pluves1 said:
Thought it worthwhile giving an update on this issue as what I've just seen doesn't really inspire me with great confidence!

Car has been in the dealers now for over 6 weeks. To be fair they've been great and updated me along the way. I wont go into the full list of things they've done but, they were determined to get to the bottom of it as were Audi HQ.

In addition to swopping wheels out and swopping over all kinds of parts they finally resorted to taking the cylinder head off. Bear in mind this car has just over 20,000 miles on the clock and I had hoped to put another 50k on it if I kept it for another two years.

They were checking the valve springs as sometimes the wrong ones can be fitted. In doing so they actually discovered the root of the problem.
The cylinder head for whatever reason is badly carboned up as were the valves. Some of the valves were discoloured a sort of reddish tinge. So Audi have authorised replacment of the cylinder head and a whole bunch of internals along with it.

I managed to get to see my car in bits this morning together with the offending parts. The tech asked me if I'd been using super unleaded - to which my answer was yes. The problems seems to be that they don't know if oil was leaking into the valve area and that is what has caused the carbon build up - so the cylinder head is on its way back to Audi HQ for further analysis.

So if you are experiencing similar problems my advice would be to get it back to Audi sharpish!

The experience has left a sour taste - not because of the way its been dealt - more to do with an issue this bad ocurring so early in the cars life.

So sadly I'll be going back to BMW as my main driver.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear the problem is getting sorted and sorry for the headache it has caused you.

This is exactly the reason I run a catch can. I plan on keeping the car long term and hopefully running the catch can will avoid running into issues like this.
 
^^^

The fuel you are using will make little to no difference in preventing carbon build up with our FSI engines . The reason being that the FSI uses direct injection which means the fuel is injected directly into the cylinder and does not pass over the intake valves and act as a cleaning agent (as it does in non-direct injection engines).
 
KRL said:
Glad to hear the problem is getting sorted and sorry for the headache it has caused you.

This is exactly the reason I run a catch can. I plan on keeping the car long term and hopefully running the catch can will avoid running into issues like this.
Click to expand...

.... call me daft, but whats a catch can and what does it do?
 
ah i see, interesting, may look into this as im gettign the car mapped
 
booked in for Monday, i will have to take a tech out in it and try to get it to replicate!!! could be easier said than done..
 
Should had checked around the net much more. FSI engines (By design) due to it's direct injection nature of engineering causes this carbon buildup on the valves. Shouldn't had taken as it was a first time thing.

Audi FSI Engine Carbon Build-up Megathread

In no way a catch can will completely solve this but as I understand it helps to slow down the process (Better than nothing, right?). But anyway, I'm sure you're in good hands. Only point that you can start blaming the carbon on the valves accumulating if you had checked the Coils, MAF, Fuel Pump and the DV that they're already been replaced or still in operable condition.
 
KRL said:
Daft :beerchug:

It's been discussed a fair bit on here before. Here is a good link:

http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/new-a3-s3-sportback-8p-chassis/101322-why-use-catch-can.html
Click to expand...

I knew I'd seen pics on the forum before of badly coked valves - thankyou.

However, I can't understand why Audi asked me if my car was using oil. I advised that I'd never had to top up since new and oil had only been changed at last service interval. This seems like a problem just waiting to happen and has made me less keen to keep the S3 on as a second car.
 
xnox202 said:
Should had checked around the net much more. FSI engines (By design) due to it's direct injection nature of engineering causes this carbon buildup on the valves.
Audi FSI Engine Carbon Build-up Megathread

In no way a catch can will completely solve this but as I understand it helps to slow down the process (Better than nothing, right?). But anyway, I'm sure you're in good hands. Only point that you can start blaming the carbon on the valves accumulating if you had checked the Coils, MAF, Fuel Pump and the DV that they're already been replaced or still in operable condition.
Click to expand...

Forgive me but, some of the text doesn't make sense.

'Shouldn't had taken as it was a first time thing.' Not sure what you mean.
'Only point that you can start blaming the carbon on the valves accumulating if you had checked the Coils, MAF, Fuel Pump and the DV that they're already been replaced or still in operable condition.' Again I'm not sure what you mean.

Are you suggesting that as it's a known issue with FSI engines that I should just live with it?
 
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