Vehicle:
1999 A4 2.8 Quattro
Miles: 178k-ish


This car sat for about 2.5 months this past winter (north east) without being started once. It had been parked for about a month but was being started regularly and had no issues, after it had sat so long without a start it now struggles to start, idles like crap and stalls, and if the accelerator is held down beyond 2k rpm it's moderately stable. The car was known to have 2 bad oxygen sensors which were just replaced along with a new radiator and timing belt. The garage also charged for a "tune-up" - exactly what it was comprised of I know not.. since the car doesn't exactly run correctly. I read a bit around the forum about the throttle body and all.. but am still unsure of some things. The mechanic that worked on the car for one.. said that he couldn't repair the throttle problem because it had to be serviced directly by an audi dealer.. and that the TPS needed to be "programmed" by them. From what I've seen on the forum there is no programming involved and replacing the entire body is a seemingly simple task. I took a look at it today and as I'm fairly good at disassembling most things and getting them back together the way they were.. I think I can do it myself.

I know it's near impossible to know... but given the fact that the car ran perfectly before it sat...
what are the odds that something in the throttle body (or even elsewhere) actually went bad?.. and is there any -easy- way to diagnose what -might- be bad?

I'm going to try to give the whole throttle body a cleaning as was recommended several other times.. but if it doesnt work, where do I go from there? I'd -prefer- to not replace the entire thing...(or shell out another 500$ like the mechanic said it'd cost to repair the throttle problem)

 

Clean the MAF and the throttle body but better yet i would just let it idel for a while.

 

Alright,

I disconnected the MAF like was suggested elsewhere.. and nothing at all changed..

I pulled off the flexible part of the airintake after the filter and sprayed in some carbcleaner while someone else throttled the engine up and down.. yeah.. probably not the best idea as it did stall it out a few times but.... it at least stays running and doesn't rev up and down very much like before... the idle rpm also increased by a few hundred.

it still hesitates when you gas it though.. and i'm now hearing some weird noise like metal scraping against metal.. it doesn't sound like its coming from the engine itself.. but somewhere up front and underneath.. i don't know.

questions:

1. If I start driving the car as it is.. will it do any harm? I'm talking like only a bout a week.. and just to and from work for the most part.. something like 20min or less per drive.

2. Is there any good instructions on how to actually pull off the throttle body? I snooped around but there are tubes connected to things.. I don't know what can be disconnected.. etc...

given my results I'm almost positive now it just needs a thorough cleaning.. and I really don't want to spend 200-250$ to have it done... as 2300$ was just put into it.

 

no takers?

 

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