mipassil

I have a really challenging problem in my Audi A4 1.8T Avant Automatic-Tiptronic 1999. The local dealers are helpless and now I'm trying desperately to get some help from you.

The problems started last summer when suddenly the engine stalled for a 0.5 secs or so during normal drive in a very hot day, and after that everything was just fine. I just managed to notice that something happened and the engine was back in business. Then it did again after few days or weeks. In the worst day the engine stalled completely and didn't start for a while. After a while it worked again. I didn't find logical reason under which conditions the problem occured, but summer. It didn't matter if the engine was running idle or not.

I visited a local dealer and they checked the error memory and nothing. I also had changed ABT chip before those problems started and the company re-soldered the chip into ECU and it didn't help either. The problem stayed there for a while and the error memory was read multiple times again and nothing.

Then winter came and problems disappeared completely. No problems for a 5 to 6 months!

Now when the spring came again and air started to warm-up, the problem came back. Lucky me... :-(

The engine can stall from idle, during drive in the city or highway. RPM's seems not to have anything do with it. Sometimes the engine starts again nicely but sometimes I have to wait a while. The stalling is like someone is turning the key to off, it is not coughing or anything - it's just like a sudden death.

If someone could give some GOOD hints what to do, I would be very, very pleased.

-Mika

iNfiNkC

possibly bad ignition switch

Mat Indukts Lambos

A4's, and is possibly your problem. Removing the top trim on the steering column is simple enough, and peek in there to see if your ingition switch plug is white or black, on the left of the column. White is an old one, and should be replaced, regardless of whether or not it fixes your problem. Might even be covered under a recall, but I don't think 99's will be covered?

Next guess would be either fuel related(pump? clogged filter? Relay?), or ignition related(output stage, on air filter assembly?). I'd have to know more about what it's doing exactly to try & pinpoint it further, whether it stutters prior to dying, or does it completely cut off, then jump back to life?

JayF

About 3 weeks ago, I had to crank the engine for about 10-12 secs before it started (very unusual) after sitting at work all day. My engine died about 3-4 mins. down the road. At first, I thought the car had just popped out of gear. I coast off to the berm & sit there for a few seconds. Restart it and it runs OK.

I got an appt. to have the dealer check it out a few days later. They found no codes & couldn't reproduce the problem but upon pulling out of the dealer - BAM - happened again. I pull back in & they tell me to bring it back the next day since all techs had left.

What they found the next day was a defective emission control module that they have to order. The good news is that it's covered under warranty since I have less than 80,000 mi.

My problem (like yours) has been very intermittent and occurs under low or high RPM. Today it stranded me at Home Depot when it would't start at all. I got my brother in law to take me home & got a ride back about 4 hrs later. It started but stalled before I got out of the parking lot. Cranked it a few times & it ran OK after that.

Very frustrating problem. I hope the emissions control module fixes it.

Jay F.
98 1.8TQMS

mipassil

When the engine stalls - it's a complete cut off that last few parts of secs or then the engine stalls complety without any warnings at forehand. It's also happening randomly. This morning it stalled just after starting, so now it's happening also with cold engine :-((((

Also the transmission row display started to look weird during last stallings: the whole display = every dot started to shine... but the light was lighter as it normally is. Sometimes after the quick cut off the automatic trasmission starts to operate weirdly = it does not change gears properly and I have to swtich into triptonic mode in order to change gears properly.

I have also noticed that when you turn the power on, you can hear few relays to work in case where then engine works fine. But when my engine refuses to start - relays are quiet too. This means that the relays does not have wake-up power.

During last weekend I also noticed that the some horse powers were lost too. But maybe the ECU went into some failsafe mode after the few quick cut offs that happened during the way and those may cause the ECU to go some failsafe mode that restricts the engine's power and use some general presettings. I stopped my car and re-started and powers were back again.

I fear that the problems are cause by a failty ECU. Unfortunately the ECU will cost around 1000 euros (equals aroung 1150 US dollars) in here northern Europe and the chip has to be re-installed again and there are no quaranteens that this will solve the problem.

Great - I'm a lucky Audi owner ;-)

-Mika

Mat Indukts Lambos

You could also check the a/t control unit, under the passenger front carpet. I've seen some cases where water seeps in through the trans wiring, and corrodes the contacts--shorting out the trerminals at the tcu at random times. Just unplug the tcu and look for any signs of moisture there. I'd be checking that ignition switch first though! Good luck!

mipassil

Finally the problem was found. It didn't take more than 11 months ;-)

We checked relays, fuses, ingition swithch and some fires & fuses - but no luck. We made a conslusion that the problem needs to be in ECU because the error memery of ECU was empty, but how to make sure that the problems really was there. Just by almost a mistake I decided to knock the ECU few times with my hand while the engine was running and there it was. The engine started to stall and more I knocked the engine finally stalled completely.

It also turnet out that the problem was in the installed ABT chip. Actually the company here claimed that the chip itself was ok, but the adaptor that connects the circuit board and the chip was faulty. ABT had previously claimed that the praticular adapter works just fine in Germany, but obviously, not here in Finland, except in winters. The company also re-soldered the chip during last autumn... may in this third time they will do their job... :-(

But anyway, thanks to you for trying to help me out. Hopefully now I have a car with one problem less... still the oil is disapperaring from the engine and one suspension arm needs to be replaced.

-Mika