Right guys, i've got a 1996 1.8T AEB engined A4.

If it's cold and i start it up to say move it off the drive then switch it off, i'll come back to it 10mins later to drive off and it won't start. Turns over and over and over but won't start. If it does manage to start then it'll misfire and barely run for a few mins then it'll be fine. Never happens once the car is warm.

Any ideas?

Big thanks in advance for any help...

 

possible ect. I thought alll 96's had the 2.8 though

 

my old rx7 used to do the same thing, id have to take out the fuse for the fuel pump and leave the ig. on for 10 mins, or sometimes take out the plugs and clean them to get it to start.

 

It's a UK car so we got them from late '95 onwards.

The ETC doesn't seem to be giving a fault code when i look on vagcom but could it still be at fault without a code present?

 

Are you seeing any faults throuh the vag and check mafs reading. Its like it is flooding the system. Onepoint8tee the problam with your 7 is simaliar with the 2nd gen rx7's. They would flood during start up mine it was a common problem with the set up I was running on mine. God I miss that car. Nothing like a rotary engine.

 

No faults through VAG at all, my thoughts were that it's flooding itself too. My old E30 325i used to do the same if you didn't catch it right on the start, solution was removing the fule pump relay as onepoint8tee says, but don't fancy doing that on the a4 everytime.

Can you describe the symptoms of a faulty ECT?

 

yeah i had two 2nd gen rx7's.. I LOVED that engine..

 

check your vag readings and compare them to the actual temp of the car they should matc. your temp gauge is ran of a diffrent sensor which is an engine coolant temp sender. So the two need to match. Check your realy for the fuel pump is it sticking as well. Short term fuel trim would be a good check as well. Not sure what vag number it is off the top of my head though.

one point8tee was either the turbo2. I owned both of my 2nd gens in japan with a very large list of mods. I will own another. I miss the car so much

 

I had the same problem in my 96 2.8... It is the ECT sensor.
When you get the car started (after it 'dies') it smokes out the back right? black smoke? it's running rich because when the engine is at a certain temperature, the ECT sends a wrong reading, and the car will run rich. Therefore, if you feed it some gas, you'll flood the motor with fuel.. so when you start it again, it's rich... This seems to happen at a specific range of temperatures, so when your car is colder or warmer than that range, it is fine. Even if you don't have a CEL, you may be throwing codes... If you do not see it now, you'll see it later. just change the ECT it's relatively cheap. Not a difficult job at all except if you wanna do it correctly, you'd drain some coolant, replace the sensor, bleed the system to get all air locks out....

but yea, a new ECTsensor will do the trick. Good luck!