Hi everyone,

I have a '99 A4 1.8. After switching out an old battery the other day, it was idling rough and low, eventually stalling. If I depress the accelerator it will work for a fraction of a second and then cut out as though I had lifted my foot up. My initial thought was that I messed up the ECU so I unplugged it for an hour and went through the reset procedure. This did not fix the problem so I bought a 3rd party OBD cable and connected it up to my car. I had done this before years ago and was able to fix this problem by resetting fault codes. The strange thing is that this time I was only able to connect to several modules. Here is the report it gave me.

Address 08: Auto HVAC
Protocol: KW1281
Controller: 8L0 820 043 D
Component: A4 KLIMAVOLL
Note: Excessive Comm Errors

Skipping Address 15-Airbags

Address 17: Instruments
Protocol: KW1281
Controller: 8D0 919 910 P
Component: B5-KOMBIINSTR. VDO D05
Coding: 02242
Shop #: WSC 00000

Address 35: Centr. Locks
Protocol: ????
Controller:
Note: Can't Synch Baud Rate

Address 45: Inter. Monitor
Protocol: KW1281
Controller: 4B0 951 173
Component: Innenraumueberw. D03
Coding: 00102
Shop #: WSC 06325

Address 56: Radio
Protocol: KW1281
Controller: 4B0 035 186 A
Component: Radio D02
Coding: 00201
Shop #: WSC 06325

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Pete

 

My guess is you have a problem with your computer set up, the line your using to your interface or the interface itself. If you go to the Options button in VCDS and test your com port, I think it tells you whether the comm rate is poor, fair, good, etc. Is yours "poor"?

 

You're right, it says "poor". Maybe I can get it to work with the updated VCDS software instead of the version that came with the cable.

 

It's not the software, it's the hardware. Are you using a serial port...or a USB to serial adapter? That will give you crappy throughput.

 

So I tried a reader instead of my lame cable and I still was not able to access the engine. I did notice that it listed the status of my oxygen sensor as "inc" which I'm guessing stands for inconclusive. It could be that the sensor is trashed and is interfering with the calibration. It's a bit of a gamble just going out and buying one though as they are pretty expensive. Maybe I'll hit the dump and look for B5s.