My girl friend was driving to the gas station yesterday after dropping me off at work its about 12 miles round trip to where she was at. The car was running fine no issues and she said she stopped at a red light and said the car started to act up and acted like it wanted to die. She thinks she heard a pop sound just before it started acting up but that could have been anything she was on a busy street and to busy trying to get the car to a safe spot to park. She said when she tried to accelerate there was just no power and acted like it wanted to die she limped it a few more blocks and pulled over and it died and would not start again.

I figured it to be the fuel pump, all signs pointed to the pump going out. I got it towed home and looked into it. After taking some lines off and looking at the pump to see if it was running I put it back together and the pump kicked on and the car started and it wasn't running very well I let it idle for awhile I figured it might have been flooded after running for a bit I pulled up closer to my house. The acceleration seemed to be fine but was still idling rough I turned the car off and it sat for a few hours. I went out to move it because we have alternating sides street parking. When I started it up a BIG cloud of blue smoke came out and I could smell oil in the exhaust and it was running even more rough and clearly misfiring spitting and sputtering and popping like it was missing big time. I let it sit for a bit longer went out again and started it up and let it idle again a big cloud of blue smoke and with each rev more blue smoke came out and when I tried to rev it up a bit it act like it wanted to die until I let off the gas. I ran codes and nothing but misfire codes.

I looked all around each head and didn't see any oil leaks no oil on the spark plug wires either. One of the spark plug wires broke and I figured maybe the blue smoke is just un burnt fuel but highly unlikely as that is usually black. I smell oil but no coolant in the exhaust. I didn't notice any oil or coolant lose nor did the car over heat or any oil mixed in with the coolant. Signs are pointing to a bad head gasket. I replaced the fuel pump as a precaution of the possibility its not getting enough fuel pressure. I will be looking into doing a compression test as soon as possible. I have searched all over and cant really find any info on the topic.. I have searched all over and cant really find any info on the topic. If anyone has experienced this before or have any info that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advanced.

 

When was the last time you did a timing belt on that car? I wonder if the noise girlfriend hear was the belt snapping as valves hit pistons?


I'd pull a timing belt cover and see if it's gone slack.

 

I will look into that as well. I don't know that if the timing belt broke that the car would even start let alone run. I was told that the timing belt was done before I bought it and that was about a year ago. The last time I was in there replacing the cam position sensor the belt looked fairly new.

 

Well, you are right. If the belt was slack you'd never start. If something happened and it jumped you might still start but run very sucky.

 

Well the passenger side has been running weird since I got it and I have always thought that it might have jumped a tooth when they did the timing belt as this is a problem for inexperienced "mechanics" and I don't know that they even did it right. These are not like fords and chevys most shops work on This car was a horror show when I got it but since all my repairs it has been getting a lot better. According to vcds the passenger side has been running lean during idle but evens out at higher rpms. I have swapped o2 sensors to make sure it wasn't a bad one but that had no affect. I have a constant misfire on that bank during idle and driving speeds it all seems fine. I have knocked out pretty much everything on the misfire list except new head gaskets, making sure the timing belt was done properly and rebuilt heads. I don't know if its an audi thing but I can hear clicking on the cylinder banks when running. I have always thought it was just the lifters hitting the valves during normal operation but now that its doing this I'm thinking twice about that. I am going to do a compression test as soon as I get another pair of hands to assist, that will tell me a lot more. Do you know what the compression range should be for the 2.8? I read awhile ago it should be around 80-85 psi but I'm not sure. The Bentley manual doesn't have much info.

 

One of the few advantages of digital Bentley is the search. But it is hard to find.




Your question about timing is a good one. You really need the tool to do it right. If you use marks, you won't be dead on. And if you use marks some other guy made, you're really throwing darts.

 

Well in the trunk was the bar used to keep the sprockets from moving and the crankshaft pin (a sweet freebie I might add) but I don't know if they used the tool to pop the sprockets off when doing it. so its all up in the air right now. Thanks for the input and info. I will update my findings. I have to replace the awesomely located fuel filter right now and await a another pair of hands for the compression test but I will look to see if the timing belt has slack and all that good stuff. Cheers!

 

well I got the filter replaced and looked at the timing belt I cant really tell if it is new or if it jumped a tooth or not. The timing belt has vw audi marks on it so idk if its the factory original and I was fed some bullshit or if they replaced it with a factory belt. The writing on it is faded but still legible. it wont even start now it wants to but just wont and is still blowing blue smoke. I had the battery unplugged all night and I redid all the adaptations and kick down procedures. Still haven't been able to do a compression test.

 

Just ohm'd the coil out and its shot. its supposed to be 8.0-14.0 k ohm's and it read 5.11k ohm's for each one. so hopefully a shitty coil is all im dealing with. I will post an update when I can.

 

Good thought. I had one that fired bad when it rained. Turned out I had way to much continuity between the spark plug pins and the outside of the coil. Unfortunately, that's obviously not your blue smoke...