Hey guys,

I'm a new member here so I guess this really shouldn't be the way to start off with a post like this. So here's my rant:

On Feb of this year, my Mazda 626's tranny blew and I was off on a quest to buy a new car. I've search near and far and finally found the perfect candidate; a 2001 A4 1.8T. Don’t get me wrong, I was really happy the first few weeks. The learning experience of driving a 5spd manual was frightening and yet exhilarating.

However, a few weeks later, my check engine light came on. I had it checked out by a mechanic and he said the car is burning lean with code P0171. So I thought to myself, “Cool, since they diagnose the problem, they can fix it right away… right?” Nope, he didn’t give me a straight answer on what the fix is. He told me that usually changing the O2 sensor would fix the problem. So, I gave him the go ahead to change it ($190 parts and labor). He cleared the code but it came back the very next day. I brought it back to him and he just shrugged. Told me I should bring it to a dealership. Since the car is no longer under any warranty, it was probably the phrase I probably dread the most. Since I know it will cost an arm and a leg just to have them look at it and diagnose the problem.

Luckily(?), a friend of mine knows a mechanic that works with an Audi dealer. So after a few back and forth phone calls, I had the Audi mechanic look at my car on the side (dealership not involved). It turns out I caught him just in time since he’s leaving that job to private shop a couple of days before he looked at my car. Anyway, he brought it into the garage and came back down within minutes and showed me the exact same code (P0171) on some data sheet. He popped open my hood and showed me a small vacuum hose that was busted open. So that was cool, the part was cheap and he charged me $30 for labor ($40 total). He told me to just drive it for a week and the code should clear itself.

Problem solved right? Nope… it’s been 2 weeks already and the check engine light is still on. I haven’t had a chance to bring it back to the guy who changed the vacuum hose yet. On top of this, I think either my shocks or struts are busted because I hear squeaking noises whenever I go over some bumps. Going to have to get this checked out too.

This, in my opinion, is ruining a good experience of a beautiful car.

 

The codes you usually have to have cleared. I have never had my light turn off by itself even when the problem is fixed!
Check this link out.
https://www.audiforums.com/m_200021/tm.htm

If you ever have a problem, read this link and find somebody close that has a vagcom to help you out. I have actually dealt with a couple people on here and they are great at finding problems.

as for the squeky suspension, thats a problem with our body style cars. control arms and ball joints suck and need to be replaced if they are still the factory ones. sucks but i had to have mine done as well.

 

Yeah, codes dont clear themselves.

Anyway, your audi is still a car, all cars have problems / need maintenance.

How many miles are on your car?

Hopefully It will be a good car for you in the long run. I have owned many cars, and I like my audi more than any of them so far.

 

Thanks for the reponse guys.

myaudi98: Thanks for the link. I will check it out.

acetrebo: I actually got a good deal on this car. Some girl owned it and it had 42k on it when I bought it off her. She sold it because she recently moved into her area and was afraid of the hills since it rolls back when she starts off. Yeah I understand that cars need maintenance... but just didn't expect that kind of headache. I actually cut out of alot of details about the MIL. I had actually visited 2 mechanics before having the ex-Audi mechanic look at it. According to the ex-Audi mech. both previous mechanics gave me wrong and different answers.

 

Your code should be gone once you clear it. I had a CEL with the same code and i went to 2 mechanics and they said either O2 or MAF sensor. I searched around the forum and found that sometimes it could be those but its usually just the vacuum hose. BTW i just got my '01 A4 1.8t with 40k miles too 3 weeks ago. I love it so far.

 

Yup! The first 2 mehcanice said O2 and MAF also. Also, I should quote what the ex-Audi mech said, "Old school mechanics always go for those first." And those 2 parts are costly.

 

Is the car doing anything? My car is running like crap and i had lean codes. we tested the MAF and its bad. The Vagcom can usually test each part. Im waiting on my new MAF so i will let you know. ECS tuning has them cheap if thats the problem.

 

Well, I still drive it every day. Since I'm still new to driving stick, I wouldn't be able to tell if its my crap driving or the car is losing power. Btw, is the Vagcom you talking about the same device used to retrieve these error codes?

And yes, please update me.

 

Yeah, the vag does everything. the guy i had check mine even wired in directly to my MAF and it was reading air flow even when the car wasnt running so that was the problem. Its crazy what they can find out with that thing!

 

haodiesel- Are you going to WaterFest? If so, there will be tone of people there with VAG-COMs. If you look around, there's also mods you can do with the VAG besides checking checking for codes and clearing fault codes.

edit- The squeek is probably from your control arms. Call up a local dealer and check if it's covered under the recall.