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Help - Audi A3 2.0TFSI Knackered engine??
rustyk - 4/3/10 at 05:58 PM

Hi all,

Don't know if anyone has got any ideas on this but before I ring Audi to beg I thought I'd ask around..

I've got a 2006 A3 2.0TFSI (turbo petrol).

Last week was driving home and it seemed that the turbo just stopped working. No torque/lack of power.
Assumed it was a problem with the diverter valve splitting as this seems to be a fairly well documented problem.

Had a good mechanic friend look at it. He said there was some kind of crank sensor fault code which he cleared. He drove it and said it seemed ok, but asked me to take it for a spin to see what I thought.

2 miles down the road, I completely lost all power and the rev needle was dancing around all over the place. No bang or loud noises.. It turns over but almost sounds like there's no compression and there's no way it will fire up.

He checked the cam belt and that's all fine so now I need to decide where to go next.
The car ran out of warranty in Sep last year and is overdue a service by about a month (oops).

Is there anything obvious to check or any known problems? I've read something about cam followers on these engines (same as Golf GTI MKV).

Do we have a look ourselves or do I bite the bullet and get the car transported to my Audi dealer?

Thanks for any advice.

Russell.

*Sorry - 2006, not 1996!! Doh.

[Edited on 4/3/10 by rustyk]


McLannahan - 4/3/10 at 06:03 PM

Coil packs? Common Golf 1.8T issue - not sure about the 2.0.

Is it def. 1996? I thought Audi were all 1.8T's then and the 2.0 TSFI was much later - 2005 ish?


scootz - 4/3/10 at 06:05 PM

Won't be an FSI at that age Rusty...


mistergrumpy - 4/3/10 at 06:06 PM

Yep coil packs are notorius. When one went on me there was just no power at all. Rally had to rev it to get it going and get home. The RAC man had them ready stocke in his van and said he thought that was the cause before he got down the drive.


Ben_Copeland - 4/3/10 at 06:28 PM

If it just ran out of warranty i'm guessing 2006 not 1996......


Gav - 4/3/10 at 07:14 PM

Easy way to tell if/which coil pack, remove the plug to the first injector, if the tone of the engine doesnt change, its that cylinder, if not replace the plug and move to the next cylinder.


ashg - 4/3/10 at 07:21 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Gav
Easy way to tell if/which coil pack, remove the plug to the first injector, if the tone of the engine doesnt change, its that cylinder, if not replace the plug and move to the next cylinder.


if it wont run then all he will be hearing is the starter motor

do you have or have access to an oscilloscope?


rustyk - 4/3/10 at 07:31 PM

No access to an oscilloscope..

I should probably ring Audi anyway but am assuming they'll just say they can't help at all until they've seen it.
My mate is convinced it's some kind of mechanical top end failure so we'll have a quick look tomorrow.

[Edited on 4/3/10 by rustyk]


owelly - 4/3/10 at 07:40 PM

Keep things simple. If there was a crank sensor fault code and the tacho was jumping around, then I'd start by looking at that. Plug it into a live diagnostic machine and interrogate the output from the crank sensor. Then check the other sensors.


ashg - 4/3/10 at 08:17 PM

i agree with owelly. it sounds like a dead crank sensor to me. on the megajolt system the rpm signal for the dash is generated by the crank sensor. if the sensor is on the way out that would explain the bouncing rev counter and the lack of power as the ignition timing would be all to cock due to poor or no crank signal. the knocking noise from the top end will just be the fuel being ignited at the wrong time an induced form of pre-ignition/detonation.

[Edited on 4/3/10 by ashg]


hillbillyracer - 4/3/10 at 09:12 PM

A trick for checking the crank sensor on most cars used to be listening to the fuel pump, when you turn on the ignition it will run for a few seconds to pressurize the sytem & stop, it then wont run again until the ECU tells it to having recieved a crank sensor signal & therefore knowing the engine is turning over/running. If the pump doesnt come back in when it's cranked over then it's likely the sensor is at fault.
I dont know if works on more modern stuff & I would'nt doubt some cars dont work that way but it's an easy & free test.