Rich L.

Since my 20K service last week, I've had an intermittent engine problem. It runs fine most of the time but once in a while the check engine light comes on and the engine labors for a second, then everything returns to normal. Once was cruising at 35 mph in 3rd, the light came on and it was like I stepped off the gas. It did engine braking and lost speed but I hadn't moveed my foot. Then, one second later, everything returned to normal. There's a click at the start and stop of the incident, sounds like a relay.

This seems unrelated to load on the engine. It has happened when idleing and the car just stalls. It even happened while I was sitting and thinking after one of these stalls. The engine wasn't even running and the check engine light came on for a second. There was kind of a hum or buzz from the engine compartment durring the second the light was on.

Anyone have any thoughts? BTW, I have a 99 1.8T with an APR v3 chip in an M code ECU (original is P) but it's been in there without any problem since December. I have gotten gas twice durring these incidents, so that isn't it.

Thanks for any ideas.
Rich L.

Rich L.

I took it to a shop with a VWTool to read the fault codes. However, it died on the way there and wouldn't restart. After messing around for a while, I disconnected and reconnected the ECU to run the throttle adaptation.

When I turned the key to on, the adaptation didn't seem to happen. I wiggled an electrical connector on the intake manifold and the adaptation suddenly started. After that, it started and ran perfectly. It hasn't bogged or stalled since.

The shop hooked up the VWTool but the only fault code was the power loss to the ECU. I guess any fault codes are lost when the ECU is disconnected.

We'll see how she does now. I'm still interested in any ideas.

Thanks,
Rich L.

JimS_2kS4

It sounds like you should check that manifold connection more closely. Did the shop mechanics have any guesses?

Not sure what it is myself but it's interesting that your problems didn't trigger any other DTCs. AFAIK, you don't lose the codes when the battery is disconnected (or else the power loss code probably wouldn't show up either).

Try calling APR. Maybe they could shed some light. Otherwise, I'd talk to the Audi techs.

HTH, Jim

PS: Just had the ECM of my '98 1.8TQms re-programmed by APR (from Neuspeed P-chip). So far, so good...