To start off I will break things down with the history of problems with my 2013 Audi A3 8V Sportback 2.0 TDI.
- The issues first started to occur when my car randomly started to struggle to start and the engine would shudder and shake when attempting to start up for about 5 seconds. The car also had significant power loss.
- Along with this problem the car started to violently lunge forward and shake at low speeds but would stop and slowly return when turning the car on and off.
- The glow plug light would appear when exceeding 50MPH but would go if the car was turned off and I stayed below 50MPH.
- Black mist and smoke started to appear from the bonnet and exhaust and appeared to come from the DPF area (I think). It also smelt like something burning and would come through the vents.
- I decided to get the DPF fully removed due to a local garage showing around 10 errors in relation to the DPF & the car was remapped. The black mist and dirt stopped appearing from the front, the smell stopped and some power returned to the car and the lunging forward at low speeds stopped but it would still significantly struggle to build speed and wouldn’t exceed 70MPH.
- I then drained the cars diesel out and replaced the fuel filter. The filter was quite black. I did this as my brother said he mixed a DPF cleaner with a barrel of diesel fuel and went against the instructions for the dpf cleaner (Bare in mind this occurred before the first symptoms and issues started to occur so this may have been the cause of all the issues).
- The car now reaches max speed as tested out on private road reaching 156MPH after a remap. However, the max torque figures and max BHP figures produced from dyno runs were a lot lower than expected. So the map file isn’t working as of now due to the cars issues.
- In addition to the above point the car shakes violently only in gears 4, 5 & 6. In gear 4 the car shakes between 40MPH & 47MPH but stops after. In gear 5 the car shakes between 50MPH & 56MPH but stops after. In gear 6 the car shakes straight away and persistently all the way to max speed as tested on a private road and experimented.
- The glow plug light has dissappeared since the fuel filter change and draining of the dirty diesel mixed with a DPF cleaner incorrectly. It hasn’t returned for 1 whole week of driving.
- The engine management light has appeared and the car shaking in gears 4, 5 & 6 still occurs.
- The engine management light was cleared manually but returned when the car was next turned on.
- The DPF related error codes have all gone.
- The only error code that exists now is something along the lines of and related to ‘fuel rail system pressure too low’ as checked using a device borrowed from a friend.
- The above point must be causing the car to shake at gears 4, 5 & 6 at the speeds I previously explained (If this isn’t the case and hasn’t got anything to do with ‘fuel rail system pressure too low’ please correct me and provide suggestions).
Now that’s a long list but I wanted to be as thorough as possible. Does anybody have any suggestions as to why the car shakes in gears 4, 5 & 6 and why it only occurs at certain speeds and provide solutions. Could you also provide possible solutions to remedy the issue of ‘fuel rail system pressure too low’.
- The issues first started to occur when my car randomly started to struggle to start and the engine would shudder and shake when attempting to start up for about 5 seconds. The car also had significant power loss.
- Along with this problem the car started to violently lunge forward and shake at low speeds but would stop and slowly return when turning the car on and off.
- The glow plug light would appear when exceeding 50MPH but would go if the car was turned off and I stayed below 50MPH.
- Black mist and smoke started to appear from the bonnet and exhaust and appeared to come from the DPF area (I think). It also smelt like something burning and would come through the vents.
- I decided to get the DPF fully removed due to a local garage showing around 10 errors in relation to the DPF & the car was remapped. The black mist and dirt stopped appearing from the front, the smell stopped and some power returned to the car and the lunging forward at low speeds stopped but it would still significantly struggle to build speed and wouldn’t exceed 70MPH.
- I then drained the cars diesel out and replaced the fuel filter. The filter was quite black. I did this as my brother said he mixed a DPF cleaner with a barrel of diesel fuel and went against the instructions for the dpf cleaner (Bare in mind this occurred before the first symptoms and issues started to occur so this may have been the cause of all the issues).
- The car now reaches max speed as tested out on private road reaching 156MPH after a remap. However, the max torque figures and max BHP figures produced from dyno runs were a lot lower than expected. So the map file isn’t working as of now due to the cars issues.
- In addition to the above point the car shakes violently only in gears 4, 5 & 6. In gear 4 the car shakes between 40MPH & 47MPH but stops after. In gear 5 the car shakes between 50MPH & 56MPH but stops after. In gear 6 the car shakes straight away and persistently all the way to max speed as tested on a private road and experimented.
- The glow plug light has dissappeared since the fuel filter change and draining of the dirty diesel mixed with a DPF cleaner incorrectly. It hasn’t returned for 1 whole week of driving.
- The engine management light has appeared and the car shaking in gears 4, 5 & 6 still occurs.
- The engine management light was cleared manually but returned when the car was next turned on.
- The DPF related error codes have all gone.
- The only error code that exists now is something along the lines of and related to ‘fuel rail system pressure too low’ as checked using a device borrowed from a friend.
- The above point must be causing the car to shake at gears 4, 5 & 6 at the speeds I previously explained (If this isn’t the case and hasn’t got anything to do with ‘fuel rail system pressure too low’ please correct me and provide suggestions).
Now that’s a long list but I wanted to be as thorough as possible. Does anybody have any suggestions as to why the car shakes in gears 4, 5 & 6 and why it only occurs at certain speeds and provide solutions. Could you also provide possible solutions to remedy the issue of ‘fuel rail system pressure too low’.
