I'm not good with cars beyond the very basics(change tires etc) so I may not be very accurate with my descriptions.

My 2001 A4 Turbo has had major trouble starting lately. The engine turns over but will not catch. If I sit with it for a bit cranking it and giving it a break(say about 10 minutes of doing this) I can finally get it started, though it struggles(going between the cranking up noise and the the engine actually starting). Sometimes I can get it started right away no problem. I've gone to work, leaving it for 7 hours and it would not start, I left it in the driveway for about 14 hours the next day(drove another car) and it started fine the first time. When I started it to take it to the auto shop, it would not start(it was the worst it had been) I finally got it started, now the guys at the shop(its been there for a day) can't get it to NOT start.

So to sum it up, the car will start if I keep trying, the engine turns over but will not catch.

I don't want to fuel speculation but, recently my car had trouble with just running I took it in and they found out that oil had been leaking into my spark plugs. They put a gasket on and changed out the dirty spark plugs. Ever since I got it back I've been experiencing this, but as I learned in psychology; correlation does not equal causation.

Also when I took the car in for this last week, they ran the diagnostic and it said one problem was the power relay in the ignition system, which obviously wasn't the real problem.

Please help.

 

I dont know alot about fixing up cars either, but I did have some of the same problems recently with my car, so possibly its the crank position sensor also? Crank position sensors work best when cold from what i hear, so that might be why it works sometimes and not other. Its just a shot in the dark, but hope it helps.

 

i'd suggest if you can take it to autozone to have the diagnostic codes pulled and see what all comes up. then look them up here:

http://wiki.ross-tech.com/index.php/Main_Page