Juddering, no power over 3K, lack of power, bad performance

As the title says, I had all of the above...... however not anymore!

Audi A4 S-line Diesel 170

This is my first official post on the forums although I have regularly read existing ones. It's more of a thanks rather than a question as I finally have the car running like it used to.... which to be honest, I forgot how good it could be.

Thank you audi-sport.net and to all the people who contribute their knowledge and experience.

As the title suggests I had all sorts of problems.

1) Juddering: - It hasn't done this for a while it happened more in the winter months. You could feel the whole engine vibrating, probably the symptoms of a bad engine mount.

2) No power over 3K: - Sometimes I couldn't even get beyond 3K which may have been limp mode. If it wasn't in limp mode then it just wouldn't go over 3.5k period.

3) No performance: - Apart from the fact I couldn't get beyond 3.5 it would take it's time getting there.

4) Bad Idle and shaking: - Sitting at traffic lights was a shake shake situation.

5) Occasionally slow starting: - Not a huge amount 2-3 seconds whereas it used to start instantly.


In short I cleaned the EGR Valve and put in a new fuel filter. The car is now a car I forgot we had, it pulls like a train and goes like a rocket. It actually caught me off guard on the road test but put a rather large smile on my face and made me shout a rude word!

Ultimately it was the fuel filter at fault and was causing the main problem. It wasn’t changed that long ago, well probably longer than I thought. I think a case of supermarket fuel and pottering around town, (the missis uses it mainly), doesn’t help.

Euro Car Parts are currently doing 50% so it cost me £11! Bargain!

The EGR clean however has dramatically improved low end performance and the idle and shaking issues. I didn’t use the new gaskets I bought from Audi, I used the existing ones. The main reason is due to the amount of crud I could see in the inside of the inlet manifold so will take that off over the weekend and put the new gaskets on then.

Also the pipe that comes off the EGR that runs down to the back of the engine looked pretty built up as well. I’m not too sure how easy it will be to get to the other end but if it’s possible then I’ll clean that out as well.

Because of the lack of performance due to the fuel filter it probably hasn’t been getting the “blasts” it needs to help clear out the system. I will certainly give it a good run before taking it all apart again, with a bit of luck it may clear it a bit.

I’ll update the progress on this as it may be as useful as other threads have been useful to me.

Cheers

Paul

So I've just been for a burn with mixed roads and motorway driving and the car is running so so well. There appear to be a little lag in between gears sometimes when really giving it some but I won't look into this until I finished all the work and completed the gaskets.

Speaking of which I thought I'd post the details of what I bought with part numbers. I know this has been posted elsewhere but there's no harm in a little extra information.

The invoiced from AUDI with all the part numbers for an EGR Gasket set and inlet manifold.





EGR Gaskets. I read somewhere else about the Red rubber band looking one, I believe there is an alternative one as well. I don't know which mine uses yet until I open it up.




Inlet Manifold gasket.




If you have a Toolstation near you then head there for some carb cleaner. £2.68 for 400ml. Euro Car Parts wanted £5.60 and Halfords was £6 something for 500ml. At that price I bought two cans, they do delivery as well I think for free, but don't quote me on that. You may find cheaper elsewhere but I thought this was a bargain, it worked great as well getting rid of the carbon.






The Fuel Filter was the cheapest one from Euro Car Parts, it was £11.88 to be precise even though I said 11 quid earlier, made by Guttmann.

I'll probably change it again in a couple of months for a Bosch which is what I replaced it with. I plan to stick some treament in the tank so I'll do it after that.

Hope some of that helps, just giving back some info in return for the knowledge given to me on the forums.

herbie said:

Good work so far mate. You still getting the juddering/vibration?

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The juddering/vibration seems to have cleared now but there was an improvement after the EGR valve cleaning. I did the EGR valve first as I thought that maybe the original problem. A road test showed improvement with low revs and lack of vibration but it didn't fix the lack of power problem. The fuel filter change alone have the car at least 4 times more power.

Incidently I am having trouble believing that the filter was change when it VW said they changed it. In the past I have put identifying marks on things like that before servicing. I just didn't think to do it last time around. I have kept the old filter though as I'm going to try and work out if any serial numbers or dates can help me out. I would be surprised if people kept old stock of filters so some form of date may help identify when it was last changed.

unitzero said:

Finally something positive regarding a 2.0TDI ! Glad your problems are sorted mate. I will put a new fuel filter on my "to do soon" list along with the EGR clean.

oh, and thanks for the tip re. Tool station for carb cleaner. I noticed one inside my local Wickes last weekend

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Yes the Tool Station find was nice, I only used about 3\4 of a can so I should have plenty for when I do the manifold, (as I bought two cans).

I was planning to do the manifold this weekend, weather wise it would have been perfect. However we had loads to do so it will have to wait until next weekend.

Overall though it's driving really nice, I have noticed just a couple of minor flat spots from time to time but in comparison to what we had I can live with those for now. Bear in mind I re-used the old gaskets so there is a small chance that could cause an issue.

I'm still debating whether to throw some diesel treatment in the tank. The injectors, well 3 of them, are only 12 months old as they were replaced with the recall. There could be other parts gummed up though, who knows.

I have PM'd a few people in my area to have a fault scan performed. As it was mainly the fuel filter at fault it would be intersting to see if the engine management highlighted anything wrong. I have a cheapy bluetooth OBDII but that doesn't display any faults, I'm not sure if VCDS would display anything different as I'm not familiar with that side of things.

When I went down to AUDI I also asked if they had any details of parts used for my recall. The invoice they gave me simply said "recall work complete", which obviously means nothing. They did show me a list of parts though which included the wiring loom, one of the parts I was unsure had been changed. The only thing that wasn't listed was any indication of a software update, the technician assured me it would have been done though!! I'm hoping VCDS can tell me the software level?

I'll update my original thread later as I just remembered that I took some pictures of the carbon deposits in the EGR valve. In fact lumps of carbon were literally falling into my hand as I was taking the unit out.

jaygeezer871 said:

Ok, vacuum actuator as well.

I assume there's a manifold gasket, did you replace this?

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A picture of an inlet manifold gasket is on the very first post. I actually paid about a tenner for mine from an AUDI stealership. I intended to do the inlet manifold at the same time so couldn't wait for a delivery from TPS. In fact I haven't used any of my gaskets from AUDI yet, I doubt they are returnable though.

mm707 said:

One thing to look out for is one of the manifold bolts is inside the air intake and can be covered in crud so not always visible. Just scrape it away and you'll see it. Have plenty of carb cleaner ready

.

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Thanks for that, I'll keep an eye out for that one and the tip about the vacuum actuator, is that the price from TPS?

jaygeezer871 said:

I cleaned my Egr some time ago with great results but think I need to change the fuel filter now as have some if you symptoms.

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jaygeezer871 said:

Ref changing the fuel filter, seen a utube vid but do the pipes need to be crimped or is the fuel under no pressure as the engines off?

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It's pretty straight forward, there is one bolt that holds the filter in place. Don't undo this first as it's easier to loosen the fuel pipes with the filter held in place.

Two pipes are connected to a T-piece which can be removed by pulling out the circlip. The two other pipes I had problems with at first. Despite twisting and pulling they were gummed up and stuck. I ended up using mole grips to twist them which did damage the end of the hoses, however there was enough slack for me to trim the ends to put onto the new filter. Just make sure you keep a note of the order of the pipes, I don't think you can go wrong... but just in case.

That's pretty good pricing, half the price of Audi for the gaskets, I paid nearly £20. I did want them there and then as it was a last minute decision to take it all apart, thanks to the missis moaning about the car! She paid for them anyway and I got a large bottle of Jack Daniels for fixing the problem.