Cranju

Hello everyone,
My 2011 S4's engine has been shutting off while driving for about a week now, and it's getting so bad that I have a service appointment booked. This is one of those problems that could cost me a lot of money replacing random components if I don't have a good game plan. Perhaps one of you has had this issue before and could save me some time and cash?

Details of Issue:
This issue has happened 6 times. Each time has been after a hot start, getting back into the car after 30-90 minutes and the engine up to temperature at start-up.

The engine will cut out after 1-2 minutes of driving, often after shifting into second gear after a stop sign(I have a manual transmission). I know what you may be thinking, and no I'm not stalling my car! its too smooth for a stall, and most recently I've had the engine cut out while driving at speed on city streets.

All electronics stay on. The only way I know the engine has cut is when I lose power steering and the tach goes to 0 rpm. When I try to re-start the engine the engine will catch, rev to 1000rpm and then die again. I need to wait 2-3 minutes without pressing the ignition to successfully restart the car. If I don't wait and keep toggling the starter the car will go from catching and stalling to just turning over without catching. Pumping the gas peddle will not help.

The car has never thrown a check-engine light.

From what I've bee reading about general engine issues like mine I could have a bad fuel filter or pump. Anything I should check before those items?

Thanks!

zulujams

Where do you live? You can try replying here and/or posting in the regional forum covering where you live with a request for help from someone with a www.ross-tech.com cable. With the cable and software, someone could scan your car and try to determine where the issue(s) may be. Since you're not getting a check engine light (CEL), I don't think going to an Autozone or similar could use a basic scanner, but I don't know for sure on that.

As for the specific symptoms, others may chime in if they've had something similar. Let us know what you find out from the dealer and from a scan if someone can help you.

turr520

Shouldn't your car still be under warranty?

Evlengr

I was thinking the same thing. Shouldn't warranty cover all this? And at this level I would think the dealer would have a loaner cleaned and ready for you.

Cranju

The dealership traced this issue back to the fuel pump control module, and was a warranty fix.

zulujams

Glad to hear this is resolved. I'm sure you're glad to have your car back and at full power again.

sakimano

man...that could have killed you. This happened to someone else with a B8 S4 a while back on here. Wonder if it was the same problem?

I guess Audi won't do anything about it till someone gets tboned trying to make a left turn.

s4atx

Glad to hear you were taken care of... I had a similar issue on my 2010... Was cruising along the highway and the car shut off... Not a very pleasant experience to say te least. Fortunately, traffic was very light at the time. Car would crank, start, and immediately sputter to a stop. Root cause on my paperwork was a shorted fuel
pump.. More than likely that means shorted control module-- guess its one unit?? Anyhow, I don't like the words "short" and "fuel" in the same sentence.

Evlengr

That is standard response Saki. I was almost killed along with my family when this happened in my X3. They tried every trick in the book to shun responsibility until I threatened to post a video. A state trooper was running video while running a speed trap and caught the whole thing.

The problem is they are looking at their checkbooks instead of doing what is ethically correct and admitting there is a problem and taking care of it.

Instead of being jerks they should own up to these problems immediately and people will have tons more respect for the brand.

An example would be when Tylenol was tainted with poison back in the 80's. They pulled everything off the market under their own volition until they were absolutely sure it was safe again. The result was that their sales quadrupled as people felt safe in buying their products. It is a textbook example of how good ethics can be worth more in the long haul then the immediate gain.