In case anyone has this problem in the future


For those who read all my posts about the problem I was having it was finally fixed. The shop called and found some wiring related to the MAF sensor that had all melted together. The shop told me it was unbelievable that the dealership and prior shop had not been able to figure this out because it was the first thing they noticed when they popped the hood. The wires were glued together and exposed, it was a miracle that the car even ran. They fixed the wiring and drove the car, no codes no problems. The only thing left for me to see now is if the transmission problem still occurs. I am picking up the car thursday and I will get more in depth information as to why/how this happened. I CANT WAIT TO STOP DRIVING MY RENTED MITSUBISHI GALANT, one day in this car has reminded me why I bought an Audi.


This is the summary of my prior posts

Ok so here goes, it's a hell of a problem so stick with me. About 3 months ago my check engine light and electronic stabilization program light (triangle with circle around it) came on. The codes the CEL is putting out are the following:

16487

P0103

Mass or Volume Air Flow Circ High Input

17522

P1114

Bank1-Sensor2 Internal Resistant too High

18265

P1857

Load Signal Error Message from Engine Contr.

I took the car to the dealership where I spent about 800 dollars. They fixed a vacuum leak and replaced the MAF sensor. The MAF sensor code still existed with the new MAF installed on the car. The dealership then ran a diagnostic on the wiring harness of the ECU which was found to be good. Dealership then installed the stock airbox in place of the carbonio and the problem still existed. Once they did another diagnostic and realized the car was chipped the dealership informed me that they would not do further work on the car without replacing the ECU or having me take the car back to the shop and have it put back to stock.

So now I found a place nearby called speedtuningusa that does their own programs for audis and bmws. They checked a bunch of things like ignitors, starter, and they tell me they think the ECU is bad. They order a refurbished ecu i drop the car off, they call me tell me the ecu they recieved is no good and to wait for another to arrive. New one arrives they try to install and say they cant get the ecu to work with the car after swapping immobilizer info. Shop tells me to take it back to people who did APR programming and to have theecu put back to stock. So I call them and they say it shouldnt matter once the new ecu is in and that the other shop is neglecting the gauge cluster programming.

Finally im getting the refurbished ecu that i paid for and taking the car back to the original shop and seeing if they can fix this god damn thing. I was trying to avoid this because that shop is an hour and a half away but no one else knows what to do. If they cant fix it im gonna have to give up and get rid of the car which would be a huge financial loss, the car wont sell for **** with those problems.

Normally I wouldnt care about two lights on other than passing emissions but here is what the car does with these lights on. Sometimes during deacceleration *maybe once or twice a week* the car will jerk violently like the gears arent clicking smoothly. Its an auto but it feels like a manual when you let the clutch out too fast/soon. Also now sometimes when I am idling the engine will shut off and the battery light will come on. Also sometimes the engine will bog down and it will feel like the car is ready to stall when I try to accelerate, occurs once or twice a week. It is just very frustrating because I am spending thousands at different places and no one knows what the **** is going on.

 

see if u can go to like autozone or someplace that will check ur battery and charging system for free. as for ur other problems, auditech79 should have the answers although it will be hard to tell u exactly wuts wrong

 

Thats y we dont buy Auto's

 

I had the same type of run-around. Turned out to be some spliced wiring done by god knows who, god-knows when. After three shops, I ultimately had to take the car to my friend who owns an Audi specialized shop that is 2 1/2 hours away. We had to replace engine wiring harness because it was throwng faults that didn't exist and was not seeming to throw faults it should have. It was a mess that the first two mechanics made worse at my expense. It's crazy to me how fast these guys are to throw expensive parts at your car. A good mechanic is better than a good woman most of the time!!! GOOD luck.

 

Notahonda - thanks so much for your excellent post, I seem to be having some similar probs to you, and am struggling to work out whether 1) I should clean the throttle body; 2) clean the Idle valve control, or 3) change the MAF or 4) look for broken vacuum hoses or 5) something else!!!
Description:-
Car is A4 Avant Quattro 2.8 v6 30v, 1998 Tiptronic (127,000 miles so far) - I have bought a VAGCom odb2 jobbie, and am waiting desperately for its arrival, but until then I cant give any codes... Here's hoping it arrives soon!

Symptoms:-2 separate areas:- The first one is WAAAY more irritating by a very long way.

1) Idling - when idling in traffic, or even when moving, turning a corner etc, the dies (both at idle, and when slowing down to make a turn in town. Apart from being goddamned dangerous (no steering or braking), this isjust plain badWhen stationary, the revs hunt around a bit, but again all the more frequently the engine is prone to just shut off. When I restart it leaps immediately back to life - it almost feels like its on a time loop - happens every4 mins or so. Took the car to a specialist and they read code- something about MAF reading too high. He reset the throttle CABLE (he thought it may not be closing properly which may cause the 'hunting' then stalling), and cleared the code, it worked for about 10 mins, now the same symptoms are back so i guess this wasnt the prob. Any working solutions to this would be much appreciated from all corners of the globe! I promise to provide the answers on this forum if I ever get the prob fixed!

Transmission - sometimesthe car seemsto drop out of Tiptronic, and reverts back to D (drive), even though you can waggle the stick from D to Tip and it doesnt make any diff at all. Then when you switch off and restart the car, Tip comes back. This sounds to me to be very electrical!!

Any help you guys can give would be very much appreciated. Regards Olly

 

Sorry about that Notahondaowner, not all dealerships have "trained" technicians, trust me we all go to the same schools for new model training. Its good you got the MAF wiring fixed.
As for the transmission what you have to do is check for a tranny pan leak, if its leaking, the fluid level may be low starving the shift solinoids and torque converter causing horrible shifting.
If thats ok you need a new torque converter.