Major Engine Fault! Help

[downie]

HELP!!
My car is poorly.
I have a 51 plate S3 and have covered 23000 miles in it. I bought it only 2 months ago from a dealer in lincoln.
I started it up today and got to the end of the street and tried to pull away. As I moved the car felt hesitant and had no power. i listened to the engine and it sounded terrible. I went back home.
The engine it missing. Only firing on 2 cylinders 1 and 2. 3 and 4 do not spark. The plugs seem good and I cant believe 2 would go at the same time. I looked in the fuel filter thinking the fuel may be contaminated but it looks ok. I drained the tank and put 3 gallons of shell fuel in. Emptied the fuel lines but the same trouble. Still only sparking on 2 cylinders. I need help. My local garage are struggling.

 

[ChriS3]

Sounds like it could be the coilpacks.

 

[loftgroover]

The coilpacks were the subject of a silent VW recall. The resin in the top cracks and water gets into the electronics and they die.

Go and bi%ch at the dealer, they should do it FOC.

 

[loftgroover]

Swap the coils from a working cylinder to a non working one, the spark should move with them..

 

[Mo-S3]

Dont worry too much, sounds very much a coil pack issue. All resolved under warranty. Worse case they are around £50 each. Suggest the garage chnage all 4 of them to prevent the same happening again.
Yes VW/AUDI you are Muppets for not issuing a proper recall !!!!!

 

[Rob W8]

They would not pay for mine. Both times I have had them changed by the AA mechanic that turned up. Numbers 2 and 3 have gone now and they were only about £30 from the AA.
I spoke to Audi and mentioned the recall and they were not really interested as mine is an old girl now.
Shout at the dealership and you should get all 4 changed under your used warranty.

This might help you if they get shirty

http://www.wak-tt.com/tt/coilrecall.htm

Good luck

Rob

 

[C_Audiboy]

Ahhh, every once in a while this old favourite comes back and bites someone!

I **** myself when it happened to me too - I thought it was something very major and very expensive!

Defo sounds like coilpacks, even if audi don't do it FoC (they should though) it doesn't cost that much - about £30 each IIRC......

But hey - you bought it from a dealer just a coupla months ago? You got Audi approved warranty I assume? If so, just call roadside assistance and get the trusty guys in the Allroad Quattro to come out to your house and fit replacements. Job done :thumbsup:

 

[downie]

Thanks Guy's
Ill see how I get on tomorrow.

Owe you all one!!

Si

 

[Wicked666]

don't go to AMD like I did when i first got car.

replaced 4 coilpacks and charged me £200. NEVER going there for anything again

 

[Wak]

But they are £30 each and you got charged an hours labour. presumably including some diagnostics to check the problem?

I dont see the issue?

 

[Wicked666]

But they are £30 each and you got charged an hours labour. presumably including some diagnostics to check the problem?

I dont see the issue?

only one had a fault and on the phone they made it out like it was the worst problem in the world and had to get it done with them. (i'd dropped off car and went to bicester). They didn't need to replace all of them and I could've done it myself in their car park.

My local garage would've told me the problem and sorted it for a lot cheaper but i was in oxford and was a week after they'd remapped the car so thought it was related. That was only reason I took it to them.

Only when i got back home I realised how easy they were to do myself.

Don't know where receipt is but is was something like £250 including VAT!! plus an hour's labour for that?! When I agreed to it on the phone I asked does it include vat and the guy (sounded australian) said it did, when I collected the car they put vat on top.

Doubt anyone else on here would pay that much for coilpacks.

 

[Wak]

I dont want to start an argument, just want to highlight a few things that the average joe may not be fully aware of....

Earlier cars in the tt/s3 range have no easy fault logging to identify misfires so you have to spend time pulling packs to review them, 2 are typically difficult to get to, it all adds up trying to diagnose these faults.
Bolt down packs add additional time.

If you happen to have bolt down packs they are more expensive as well.

If 1 pack does go or you happened to have had the older packs then it makes sense to change all of them.

The nature of pack failures is they fail from change in temps, i.e. its more likely to happen in winter after you park the hot to cold temp range is wider and more often than not, after you start a pack going from very cold to very hot will crack its internals.
( do you let your car warm up, keep it below 3000 revs until a few minutes after its at 90 degrees)

Its possible the remap exaggerated that cold to hot range but its a consequence of the map creating more heat and pushing a borderline component harder, not a problem caused by the remap.

What I find slightly amusing is that a lot of reasons people may criticise AmD for have now left and its just a shame the legacy remains.

I'm not saying the charge is justified, I dont know the whole background.

All I'm saying is that I diagnose and supply packs myself and it isnt always obvious how much time is invested in the diagnostics, sometimes its luck thats finds the right one quickly or you spend time to find it.

Did you know that many pack failures outside of Audi's poor quality batch, and natural mean time betwwen failure, are caused by plugs not torqued down properly! Leaking gases basically cook the coil pack.

We generally remove plugs to check them and review the torque and 9/10 times we find the plug is loose and the coil pack removed is brown from being roasted. Torque should be checked cold, you need to allow the block to cool.
If you found 1 loose and ******, would you prefer the others left alone or reviewed?

From a customers point of view I can see how some may feel hard done by but from now doing this as a part time living, transitioning from a customer to a service provider, to offer a thorough review and some assurance the problem wont repeat itself involves far more time than you appreciate.

Perhaps the solution is to tell customers Do you want me to just change the one thats faulty or spend some time trying to ensure it wont happen again?

I've recently seen Adam at Amd doing exactly this, not just a simple swap but a review of plugs as well, I dont know if the customer will appreciate the effort behind a simple pack swap.

As a service provider and enthusiast I'd like to ensure my customers cars are running as well as I want my own car to run and I want my car to never need to see a garage!