Hey all. Just bought a 2001 A4 2.8 30V last week. It has a little over 200k on it, and the previous owner seems to have kept it up pretty well.

Naturally, three days after I purchased it a problem showed up. After driving for about 20 minutes I dropped my daughter off at school (took maybe 10-15 minutes inside). When I came back out and started it up the car was idling VERY rough and the check engine light was on.

I drove to work and back home that evening - the whole time if I was idling the car it would drive very rough. Once I was accelerating the problem seemed to mostly go away - I haven't driven it enough to know if there was a noticeable change in performance under acceleration.

So, I don't drive for a couple of days, then start it up today to start fixing the problem. I pull out my ODBC reader and get:

P0300 - Random Misfire Detected
P0304, P0305, P0306 - Cylinder 4, 5, and 6 Misfire Detected
P1522 - Intake Camshaft Control Bank 2 Malfunction

I drove it to a place down the street and came back home - the car seemed much better than before. I'm not sure if it was 100% back to normal, but it seemed close. When I got back I cleared all of the codes, but the first four showed right back up again.

After checking the forums, I know coil packs and spark plugs are likely culprits for this sort of problem, but the fact that it is 4-6 only bugs me a bit.

I should also mention that the power steering pump was bad when I purchased the car - I had it fixed at a local shop last week before I picked the car up. I'm not sure if the replacement process could have knocked something loose?

Anyway, let me know what you all think. Thanks for the help!

 

That 1522 could cause the other codes. If the power steering boys left the cam position sensor unplugged, or somehow chewed the wires up, the ECU wouldn't know where the bank 2 cam is. And guess where it is? Right under the power steering pump on the front of the bank 2. Take a look there. Here's a crude picture but the arrow points to the cam sensor. The plug goes into that little black recepticle to the right side.

 

That's bank 1 unfortunately. Bank 2 is driver side, and the sensor is on the back of the head. Not terrible to get at, but more work than bank 1. Agreed on it likely being a sensor issue. The packs are a problem on the 1.8T but the 2.8 coils are solid (they're completely different).

 

Don't confuse me with details like that Devil!

He's right. There is also the cam adjuster on the front of bank 2 (the bank 2 that's on the driver's side) that would also throw those three codes. But it's less likely to be in the way of a PS pump job. Still worth checking it's condition.