1.8t miss firing?

[motorsportbeng]

I have recently bought a 8l A3 1.8t quattro sport and for the past 2 weeks its been faultless, I have been doing lots of miles in it etc. due to the novelty of it being a new car. Got in it this afternoon pulled only 1/2 a mile down the road and its starts hesitating with a vibration as you accelerate. The engine management light was flickering on and off at this point and when I stopped at some lights there was a lumpy idle and vibrations felt throughout the car. To me this seems like a miss fire and I've heard the coils can be temperamental on these. When opening the bonnet it smells very hot in the bay, I presume this is un-burnt fuel igniting in the hot turbo? does this sound like symptoms of a broken coil? I haven't got vagcom yet, I was just planning on letting the car idle and unplugging the wiring to each coil and seeing if the problem can be traced to a cylinder, does this sound all right?
thanks

 

[Rick @ Unicorn Motor Dev.]

If it's vibrating then you're right it is mis-firing. We need to find out why. Is it continous now? I would agree it sounds like the coil pack, so do as you say and see what happens. Before you swap any over, take the plug out and check it over/dry it out. Once you've got your new coil, put in a new set of plugs.

Rick

 

[Nilz]

Give Audi a call, they did a recall on coilpacks recently, if it is a coilpack, they will or should replace it FOC

 

[badger5]

my advise if you can afford it is replace all 4.. (if they're the same letter code/age, if ones tired, they're all tired..)

even better if yours are covered by the recall currently.

check plug gaps.. if too large the tired coil packs will expire trying to muster enough energy to jump the gap