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Attention to all people who are having hard start issues when car is warm

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2020 4:55 pm
by onurserkan
Hi guys, i have read few topics regarding numerous people having issues when starting their RS6/7 & S8’s. I also experience this problem on my RS6 which I always thought its the map I have and the ghost immobiliser conflicts with each other. Just to confirm, during this week I had an S8 2017 turn up to my workshop with the same issue so I thought it must be a common issue since others are also having the same problem. Car normally hesitates to start leaving it to rest after getting to operating temperature. You would need to try once or two to get it going, or apply a bit of throttle to fire it up. Also when it does start, it would misfire for a second or two till it builds up the revs.

We have dealer level diagnostics and access to all the technical information on the VAG group. Therefore I have carried out a series of test. I can certainly confirm that the issue relies to the High Pressure Fuel Pumps. What happens is that the pump starts leaking fuel internally, which then loses pressure. To build up the pressure it takes longer for the fuel to get into the system and bleed itself. During the test, it asks to measure the fuel pressure drop in 5mins, 10mins, 15 & 20mins. This then determines leaky HPFP. On our engines there are two of them, however when you look at the TPI via Audi, it states both pumps need replacing regardless. Unfortunately, if you are experiencing this issue you’ll need to replace your oil and filter as your oil would be contaminated with excess fuel.

Faulty injector is also another possibility, however very unlikely as they are not very common for replacement. For people who are in the region of South East, we can carry these checks are and diagnose which one it is, or you can get your local dealer to have a look at it. However knowing dealers, they do not like customers approaching them to tell them what checks to carry out. I’ve read some who had their exhaust valves blamed at, some with their remap. So it may be tricky to get your dealer to diagnose it.

New HPFP’s are about £254 +VAT each, retail. Easy enough to replace, and do not need coding or adapting. It will just work out the box. Once you remove the old pump, you can look at the spring in the middle which would have slight rust marks on it. This indicated that its been leaking. Sorry for the long write up, but I thought i’ll share my findings as there are numerous people having the same issue. Hope this helps guys 8)

Re: Attention to all people who are having hard start issues when car is warm

Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2020 4:08 pm
by Royclarke
Brilliant information and will surely help a lot of people,A+ member 👍

Re: Attention to all people who are having hard start issues when car is warm

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 5:58 pm
by Gniwog
Brilliant!! I have this fault occasionally and was looking at changing both hpfp but was hesitant without confirmation. Will get replacements ordered now. Thanks for the update.

Re: Attention to all people who are having hard start issues when car is warm

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2020 10:36 pm
by dannyuk
I have sold mine now, would have loved to have got it fixed! Great write up.

Re: Attention to all people who are having hard start issues when car is warm

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2020 1:43 pm
by Markwes
Has anyone replaced these yet?

I’ve just ordered a couple of replacement pumps as it’s a PITA when you’ve parked your car up for a few hours, come back to it and it won’t bloody start!! I was wondering if the cam followers will need replacing too.
If anyone has replaced the pumps what condition was the cam follower in?

Cheers,
Mark


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Re: Attention to all people who are having hard start issues when car is warm

Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2020 1:36 am
by onurserkan
Markwes, I’ve already done it on 4 cars and all working absolutely well. Cam followers should be fine as they’re not affected. Driver side pump is a little more fiddling to undo the fuel hose underneath, but with abit of spray grease its easy enough to slide the clip off the hose. Straight forward swap over, and happy days no more lazy start.

Re: Attention to all people who are having hard start issues when car is warm

Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2020 9:58 pm
by Markwes
Onurserkan,

Thanks for the info. I’m currently stuck in Saudi Arabia due to the flight suspensions ongoing here because of Covid-19. Once I finally manage to escape back to the U.K I’ll set about fitting the new pumps.
I’ll update once it’s done and hopefully it will also cure my dodgy start


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Re: Attention to all people who are having hard start issues when car is warm

Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 6:15 pm
by Markwes
I got round to changing the HPFP out along with new oil and filter due to the oil being contaminated with fuel from the suspected leaking fuel pumps.

Pretty straight forward job and took no longer than an hour from start to finish. Both pumps showed signs of leaking from the shaft seal with the springs being rusty. Also the passenger side pump literally fell apart when I removed it from the car, the spring and piston just fell out the bottom of the pump!

(Passenger side)
Image
Image
(Drivers side)Image

The car seems to be idling a lot smoother and also I’ve had no dodgy starting problems since the new pumps have been on, hopefully it’s cured the problem Image

As previously said the cam followers were in perfect condition so there was no need to change them.


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Re: Attention to all people who are having hard start issues when car is warm

Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 7:13 pm
by HDPete
I have experienced this a couple of times recently. I’ve also noticed smoke out the back when I open it up on full throttle acceleration. Could this cause the smokiness?

Re: Attention to all people who are having hard start issues when car is warm

Posted: Mon May 25, 2020 7:26 pm
by Gniwog
I had this, changed both pumps and been great since. Got them through ebay with a 10 percent discount code, think its was under £700 for both.

Re: Attention to all people who are having hard start issues when car is warm

Posted: Mon May 25, 2020 8:28 pm
by Tadass910
Markwes wrote:
Mon Apr 20, 2020 6:15 pm
I got round to changing the HPFP out along with new oil and filter due to the oil being contaminated with fuel from the suspected leaking fuel pumps.

Pretty straight forward job and took no longer than an hour from start to finish. Both pumps showed signs of leaking from the shaft seal with the springs being rusty. Also the passenger side pump literally fell apart when I removed it from the car, the spring and piston just fell out the bottom of the pump!

(Passenger side)
Image
Image
(Drivers side)Image

The car seems to be idling a lot smoother and also I’ve had no dodgy starting problems since the new pumps have been on, hopefully it’s cured the problem Image

As previously said the cam followers were in perfect condition so there was no need to change them.


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How old is your car? Is your car tuned? Mine 2014 everything is stock runs without problems

Re: Attention to all people who are having hard start issues when car is warm

Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 8:23 am
by Markwes
2014 64000 miles and stock. Since fitting the new pumps I’ve had no false starting issues at all.


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Re: Attention to all people who are having hard start issues when car is warm

Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 5:05 pm
by HDPete
Had mine done a couple of weeks ago by a local independent specialist. C.£900 all in, including oil change.

The pip that came out of it smelt like 2 stroke! Very risky if your oil is being diluted by the fuel running back in on the return side, like mine was.

Re: Attention to all people who are having hard start issues when car is warm

Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 9:56 pm
by Showyrs6
Hello

Out of curiosity for future reference who did you use?

Re: Attention to all people who are having hard start issues when car is warm

Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 2:15 pm
by Tadass910
Markwes wrote:
Tue May 26, 2020 8:23 am
2014 64000 miles and stock. Since fitting the new pumps I’ve had no false starting issues at all.


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Interesting, mine has 70.000 miles no issues no error codes on a dash related with fuel pumps, maybe it was a battery that was failing? Did you got some engine codes read by Audi dealer before changing those pumps?