Hello,

I just bought my first Audi last night and am looking for some help. I got good deal on the car and am trying to work on everything myself to save money from the dealers. It is an 1998 Audi A4 Quattro 1.8t. The car had not been driven for 6 months, so everything seemed out of place.

At first the car threw out these codes: P1136, P0300, P0303,P1545, and P0301.

I cleared the codes and the one that keeps coming back is P0303. This is for a misfire in cylinder 3.

The symptoms: When the car starts up it sounds really bad; like it is immediately about to die. The RPMs go between between 400-1100 at a very fast speed. And if i do not accelerate the car stutters and shuts off. The car is fine when its in Drive, but in reverse or whenever I am not accelerating it stutters and dies.

I have been reading past post and I have already tried switching out the spark plug and coil pack for cylinder 3, but the same thing. The car still stutters, and shoots out the check engine light.


What else can I try to fix this

Thanks


P.S Sorry if I am doing anything wrong, I am new with forums

 

How exactly did you swap the coil pack? Did you say swap coil pack 3 with 4? If so, and the misfire is still on cyl 3, it is most likely the ignition control module.

The ICM sends the firing signals to the coil packs, if the misfire does not follow the coil pack this is the most likely cause.

 

The car hasn't run in 6 months so the ECU's power caps drained long ago. The bouncing idle based on that sounds like you need to do a throttle body adaptation to zero everything out and help unscramble the ECU. Disconnect the battery for an hour, hook it back up, turn the key on but don't crank the engine. Leave it for two minutes. Turn it off for two minutes. Repeat two more times. Your car is a cable-throttle car so you won't be able to align the throttle like on the drive-by-wire cars, but you will still help reset the throttle position sensor, and it makes a difference. Try that out to smooth the idle and it may even help with the misfire as well since the RPM will be a lot more stable. If also fill up on 93 octane and add a can of Seafoam to the gas to help remove condensation and give the fueling system a good douche.

 

How did you end up fixing this problem? My car has been doing the exact same thing recently and its constantly breaking down