So for some time my a6 began driving a little different than usual, almost felt like timing was off or something. After that I began to have problems starting up the engine. The staring problem would only happen after driving the car for some time, parking it and then attempting to start it back up. Before you knew it, it began to occur while driving in traffic in neutral. Sometimes it would take a couple of tries, other times I would have to let it cool off for a good twenty minutes before it would start again. It would crank, but it would not start up. This went on for a couple of weeks nearly every day before I did something about it.



I did a lot of searching, and narrowed it down to the crank sensor. Put new one in, and got a loud chirping sound and car was running all sorts of crazy and would die. I then realized I had forgot the seal that went on the sensor. Loud chirping was the sensor head getting damaged in the inside by the magnetic wheel. I bought a new sensor and installed that one, this time with the old seal around it. It fired up perfectly, ran better and did not have a startup problem for the next month and a half.



And then once again I began to notice longer cranks again, now the car will randomly die in traffic if I decide to drive it for longer periods of time, but after about fifteen minutes it wills start back up. Seems like the exact same crank sensor problem I was having before.


Does anybody know what would cause a crank sensor to fail? Any suggestions? I know it’s not a battery or alternator problem for sure and that’s about it. sorry this is so long

 

possibly a faulty replacement sensor. wouldn't be the first time, especially if you bought it from a chain store.

the only other thing i could think of would be a short somewhere in the wiring to the crank sensor. it's not throwing any codes?

 

Hmmm... I thought about that, I just don't want to end up with two good sensors. No CEL's or anything like that, I'll have to VAG-COM it when i get home today.

 

Update: Turns out the brand new crank sensor was bad. Replaced sensor again, problem completely cleared up.