Okay, my wife called me giving me the symptoms of what the car is doing and here it is: When she goes to start the car, it takes a long time to turn over.
Once started the idle is pretty crappy and she says it sounds as if the car is going to stall.
I've recently changed the plugs, plug wires, VC gaskets, breather hose, and MAF.
What could be causing these conditions?
thanks in advance for all the help.

 

did this just start as soon as you changed the plugs,wires , ect? if so , could be a crossed up plug wire.

 

No, i did the plugs about 7 months ago. Could it be a bad fuel filter?

 

any fault codes? these things dont just happen there is a lead up to it ( fuel filter hmmm ) when was it changed

 

I haven't had it changed since we've had the car. The car now has about 89k miles and it is giving a fault code again. Last one was for the secondary air injection system. I searched for vacuum leaks and found none so my air pump might be bad but I was told these pumps are worthless and that some people rip them out of their Audi's.

I'll have autozone read the codes again and see if this is a new one....but do you think it may be a bad fuel filter? As far as the starting issues, it has a new battery (a year old)as well.

 

there is no code for a fuel filter as such but it would show as fuel pressure low which would give other codes ( they are called soft error codes ) they dont put the CEL on, change the fuel filter and see if the problem persists

 

Okay this is truly wierd. I picked up the car from my wife's job to have the codes read and see first hand the symptons. I started it just fine and drove to Autozone with new idling issues. Once there, the guy connected his code reader and told me that it passed...everything was fine....(say what?). I still had a CEL !!!!

Anyways, so i get back in to go home and turn the key. The exact symptom my wife described was happening....wouldn't turn over. I tried again and gave it gas and it started. However, the AC was on but no air was coming out of the vents. And turn signals wouldn't work either. [:-]So i turned off the car, waited 3 seconds, and started the car again. This time it started with no problems and i drove home with no idle issues but still with a CEL.

What is going on here???? Has anybody experienced this before???

Thanks in advance for all the help.

 

A bad coolant temp sensor will cause hard start and idle concerns, and almost never throws a fault code, have you changed that yet to the updated ect sensor?

 

No I have not, is it a PITA to change? When you say "update ect sensor" are you talking about the sensor that has a different color now than before?

 

Yeah it should be green instead of black, its not too hard to get at but its a tight fit on a 2.8.
Its on the back of the engine on the passenger's side, remove the intake hose and you should be able to see it with a flash light facing straight upwards, if its black replace that piece of s***.