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Engine light and a wobble?

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 4:01 pm
by Leodiensian
Afternoon,

I'm a new owner of a Phantom Black B7 saloon - very happy a month or so into ownership. The car has only 13,500 miles and is in pretty good condition. Four new Vredesteins and a proper wheel alignment this weekend has cured some slightly skittish handling. There is some more cosmetic work to be done (removal of GSM dash prep and some minor external scratch repair) then I'll post some pictures.

However (sigh...) the engine warning light started flashing while driving to work this morning. I think it was flashing then a pause (off) then flashing. Nothing obviously wrong. Just tried sitting in it in the car park. After start up the light was permanently flashing. After revving the engine to about 3k RPM the light went solid on. There is also a definite "wobble" coming from the engine at idle that I can feel through the steering wheel and driver's seat.

Before I call Camberley for the first time - any ideas?

Cross fingers it's a coilpack or something simple.

C

RE: Engine light and a wobble?

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 4:25 pm
by RS6chris!
Coil pack...defo...mine did exactly the same...the wobble is the engine not firing on all cylinders.

RE: Engine light and a wobble?

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 5:29 pm
by wolfgang
Does a failed coilpack cause the check engine light to come on?

Re: RE: Engine light and a wobble?

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 5:36 pm
by philipwalker
wolfgang wrote:Does a failed coilpack cause the check engine light to come on?
Yep...

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 6:52 pm
by PeteS4
Do you have a warranty?

It seems there has been quite a few new owners recently who have been having one problem or another :?

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 7:47 pm
by RS6chris!
PeteS4 wrote:Do you have a warranty?

It seems there has been quite a few new owners recently who have been having one problem or another :?


Trouble is...as with any car they getting no younger....some of the oldest cars are 4.5 years old now....Problems are bound to start. :(

Re: RE: Engine light and a wobble?

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 8:28 pm
by adsgreen
wolfgang wrote:Does a failed coilpack cause the check engine light to come on?
Hell yeah.
Failed coil pack will cause a misfire on one cylinder and not only trip the engine light but also cause it to flash. This means there's a large enough misfire detected to have unburnt fuel getting into the cat (very bad) and will probably engage limp home mode where it'll disable one or more cylinders. It'll most likely flash under load when any misfire would be more noticeable.

Surprised on such a low mileage car - might be worth checking for water in the plugs.


The good news is that as the coil packs are mounted on the spark plugs it should be easy enough to change and the bulk of the cost on the parts.

Re: RE: Engine light and a wobble?

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 8:33 pm
by aidanjaye
adsgreen wrote:
wolfgang wrote:Does a failed coilpack cause the check engine light to come on?
Hell yeah.
Failed coil pack will cause a misfire on one cylinder and not only trip the engine light but also cause it to flash. This means there's a large enough misfire detected to have unburnt fuel getting into the cat (very bad) and will probably engage limp home mode where it'll disable one or more cylinders. It'll most likely flash under load when any misfire would be more noticeable.

Surprised on such a low mileage car - might be worth checking for water in the plugs.


The good news is that as the coil packs are mounted on the spark plugs it should be easy enough to change and the bulk of the cost on the parts.
Agree - coil pack. However if its under warranty get them to change them all, as sods law a few more will pack in. (I changed all 8 on my old S4 V8).
Easy to do though, will take about 40 min max.

RE: Re: RE: Engine light and a wobble?

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 9:14 pm
by neckarsulm
Not common though are they though on our cars?
Maybe it's the low mileage to blame?

RE: Re: RE: Engine light and a wobble?

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 9:28 pm
by B7RSX
Defo the low mileage. Ive been told by few technicians these cars need to be driven otherwise coil pack need replacing.
A friend of mine actually had to sell his RS4 a year ago because he wasnt driving it enough. He had to change the coil pack twice!! Crazy!

But defo its very low mileage and i would say thats the reason possibly for the coil pack going is it hasnt been driven much.

Re: RE: Re: RE: Engine light and a wobble?

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 9:35 pm
by andre3k
B7RSX wrote:Defo the low mileage. Ive been told by few technicians these cars need to be driven otherwise coil pack need replacing.
A friend of mine actually had to sell his RS4 a year ago because he wasnt driving it enough. He had to change the coil pack twice!! Crazy!

But defo its very low mileage and i would say thats the reason possibly for the coil pack going is it hasnt been driven much.
Completed off topic...apologies, but have you any pics of your beast and some audio of the tubi. Nicely specced vehicle you have there

Apologies again for the hijack

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Engine light and a wobble?

Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 10:33 am
by klauster
I paid for mine when a coil pack went and it was a pretty cheap repair :)

Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 1:20 pm
by Leodiensian
So the AA man has been. Diagnosed a missfire in cylinder 1. Didn't have the right coilpack so we trotted to the Audi Brentford palace of dreams. Bought two spares, trekked back and replaced it. Once the fault codes were reset the ECU was no longer producing a fault code but the engine is still running one cylinder down and the engine warning light is lit.

We've given up (given no fault codes) so I'm waiting for the truck to come to recover to Camberley (not Brentford, thanks).

Hopefully it's a spark plug or something simple. I bought it in December and chose not to take out a warranty. It's possible there could be a big bill if something is really wrong. I also drove about 10 miles home (stopping and getting recovered on the elevated section of the M4 tends to cripple west London roads for about 3 hours so I chose to just get home carefully). So the cat might be screwed too...

Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 1:54 pm
by neckarsulm
I also drove about 10 miles home (stopping and getting recovered on the elevated section of the M4 tends to cripple west London roads for about 3 hours so I chose to just get home carefully). So the cat might be screwed too...
i did read that newer cars shut off the fuel to the cylinder with dead coil pack to prevent damage.

Hope it's a plug which could also be damaged by lack of use or it could be fouled if lots of short journeys, old software map and cold weather.

Please do keep us posted and good luck.

Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 12:59 am
by SKG_C63AMG
Leodiensian wrote:So the AA man has been. Diagnosed a missfire in cylinder 1. Didn't have the right coilpack so we trotted to the Audi Brentford palace of dreams. Bought two spares, trekked back and replaced it. Once the fault codes were reset the ECU was no longer producing a fault code but the engine is still running one cylinder down and the engine warning light is lit.

We've given up (given no fault codes) so I'm waiting for the truck to come to recover to Camberley (not Brentford, thanks).

Hopefully it's a spark plug or something simple. I bought it in December and chose not to take out a warranty. It's possible there could be a big bill if something is really wrong. I also drove about 10 miles home (stopping and getting recovered on the elevated section of the M4 tends to cripple west London roads for about 3 hours so I chose to just get home carefully). So the cat might be screwed too...
hi there so hows things gone with ur car is there any news yet on what was the problem?