dex

there we go again...2350 miles, 2.5 mos old 2003 A6 3.0 and i have the beloved yellow engine light on my board...i hate when this happens...the car runs fine, but for my piece of mind i need to take it to the dealer...the previous car (98 A6) developped this problem around 55k miles and it drove me nuts...the guys at the service know me by my first name...i know i'm not gonna pay a dime for the servic and they're gonna take care of me in about 30 minutes, but the drive there and the discomfort to drive with the light on until Monday drives me crazy...

saabSean

I feel for you, man.

What was the issue with your '98?

dex

issue?...God knows...at one point i had to go down to the service center every other day...they'll fix it and next day the light came back on...they couldn't find the problem, so i traded my old A6 for the new one...and here i go again...

DWP

My 2.8 had a similar issue when new - CEL every couple thousand miles - but I can't remember the codes it threw. They finally changed all the spark plugs, coils, wires and "decarbonized" the engine. The latter was a crock, I think, 'cause I routinely ran it to redline. But the problem was solved at last!

There's no way you should have to pay a nickel for any of this, of course. But I know how frustrating it is!

You could read the codes and reset the CEL yourself if you have access to a VAG tool. Here's a source for VAG owners, but keep in mind you need a TWIN com for your car, and not everyone on the list has this.

Good luck<ul><li><a href="http://www.steve-hall.com/cgi-bin/VAG-Locator.pl">VAG-COM Locator</a></li></ul>

JimR

As you probably know, as long as it's not flashing, it's not critical, no big deal other than the inconvenience. If it's flashing, pull over, call a flatbed.

Get the shop to tell you the DTC's they pull from the ECU. Post them here. You'll get comments back and we'll all learn something.

COLO4.2

I thought it was the usual gas cap problem, but it turned out to be a vacuum line around the left front area that was split. Replaced the hose, all better.

Richard Solomon

Ok, I give up

JimR

DTC = Diagnostic Trouble Code. Digits you can get the ECU = Engine Control Unit to spit out into VAG-COM. Stick the digits into the search engine on the electronic version of the shop manual, and you learn a lot, quick.

dex

okay, i'll post the DTC's after i get the car in on Monday...for the old A6 (i traded in March for the new one) they found O2 sensors, the vacuum line broke, 2 fuel injectors plugged, etc...not all of them in the same time, but quite often..i was getting tired of that light...at one point i asked them to remove the LED so i can't see the frickin light...is true that after the last service in March 2002 i never had another problem with the car for a year...

gdog009

ended up being a Torque converter issue- not sure exactly what happened with the torque converter but they ended up replacing it.

had to take out the transmission to do so and had to redo front alignment as a result. takes a few days depending on your dealer's availability/service dept's know-how.

i noticed that the transmission wasn't so smooth (seemed like power delivery wasn't consistent at cruising speed on the freeway)

just because its flashing doesn't necessarily mean its not a big problem. just that the failure isn't critical at the moment (i guess...)<ul><li><a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/a6/msgs/249126.phtml">previous thread entailing the dilemma</a></li></ul>