Apoptosis

Hi all,

I was driving my beloved Audi A4 (B5) 1996 1.8L petrol (154,000 miles) with no problems or no warning lights. The engine suddenly cut out on a busy motorway. I then could not start it at all. The battery was fully charged (only 2 weeks old) and the starter motor was turning over perfectly well, it sounded very healthy. The fuel tank was 3/4 full. The problem was that the engine was not firing or starting. At this point the low fuel warning light was on.

I called emergency repair and recovery. They were confused and couldn't find a solution. They unscrewed the fuel supply pipe to the engine and tried starting to see whether fuel is coming through. No fuel was coming through. They couldn't find any problems with the relays. However, they found the fuel pump current was far too low ampage (2.0 i think) signifying no resistance to fuel passing through.

They towed me to a garage (Halfords Autocentre). The garage confirms the actual fuel pump is fine. The diagnostic tool shows numerous faults in the ECU electronics system (as they would expect to see on an older car). The garage cannot find what is wrong in preventing the engine from firing up. It has been sitting there for nearly a week. They are having to pull staff off it to complete other jobs as they now feel they are wasting their time.

They are stuck, I am stuck. Am I actually looking at scraping my beloved Audi? It seems such a shame.

Symptoms I have had with the car for the last year or more but have not been getting any worse:

- sporadic irregular rough idling but very smooth good acceleration

- clutch bearing loose, causing a whining sound when you put the clutch down. Garages have previously said it is not serious and not worth repairing as it won't get any worse unless the clutch itself goes.

I hope someone can relate to this and has some suggestions. It is my last resort.

Many thanks in advance!!

David.Norton

Mine did exactly the same thing, would cut out and then refuse to start. We cannot know that it is the same cause, but mine was the ECU. The best thing to do would be to find a used one to substitute in, mine would show no additional codes when this would happen.

AudiMick

You shouldn't have lots of codes just because it's an old car. There should be zero codes if the car is running right.

The codes are there because you have problems. If you can't provide details of those codes here, you have no chance of getting this fixed. The codes are telling you what are is wrong.

Replacing parts like ECUs as suggested is stupid and will waste a lot of cash.

You need to move your car to an Audi/ VW specialist (probably not Halfords) . Doesn't need to be the dealer, but someone who has experience with your car.

We have generic places like Halfords in US, I would never take my 1996 A4 there.

You could buy a cheap code-reader and check the codes yourself. They cost less than $50 in the US.

David.Norton

Well, I agree that the car should not have a lot of codes just because it is old, but clearly you are going to make me elaborate on my thought process:

If the engine cuts out it is likely that the event will cause the ECU to post a code, at least suggesting a problem. Clearly the shop has a code reader, however the codes posted are not suggesting anything that would allow them to fix it. So either the shop can't follow what the codes are telling them (it does happen, best to find a different shop), or the ECU didn't supply any useful information. The one part that can fail not posting a useful code is the ECU. Unfortunately, there is little that can be done short of substituting the part to troubleshoot it, mine was even able to communicate with the code reader while it was failing (I have also seen the computer fail and not have it communicate, those are plain as day, just change it). This would be the advantage of taking it to an Audi specialist, they would likely have an old one laying around to try it out. As far as the cost of an ECU the last one I bought used came with a warranty, and cost the same as the code reader you quote.

So, while I am not advocating the owner "shotgun" the car (a term meaning to just replace a bunch of parts at random and hope for the best), not every problem falls to a thoughtful reading of the trouble codes, and I'm hoping that his shop has already provided this thoughtful reading.

AudiMick

I used to live in the UK, and visit quite often . Halfords is the UK equivalent of Pepboys, Autozone, Oreilly etc.

You can get wiper blades and a replacement inner tube for your bike there.

Not what I would call Audi experts. I doubt jiffy-lube could fix his problem either.