HELP!
My brother just bought a 1997 A4 1.8t quattro about 2 weeks ago.
After driving and washing the engine the exhaust manifold starts to glow red hot and it runs like crap. He took it to a mechanic and they said it is the coil and the head gasket and wanted to charge him $440 to fix it. I told him it is probably a mixture problem; it is probably running rich.
He brought to the shop to fix it anyways. After they replace the parts and the drove it home it did the same thing. He called the shop and now it is back in the shop.

Please help.

Thanks,
Kenny

 

First the glowing manifold is normal, its hot in there. Second, the shop that did his work is bad and taking advantage of him. If it is running like crap, he should have some codes stored in the ecu, have them read and we can help you further. You most likely did some damage to the coilpacks when you washed the engine.

BTW, if he blew a head gasket, he would need a new head and possibly a new motor. Tell the shop they are BS and try to get some of your money back for frivolous (sp) work

 

^Yes. Glowing is normal. Turbos make things hot. Water and electronics don't like each other either.
The coilpack could be/have beenbad, but the headgasket was uncalled for with the description that you gave.

 

well just making sure, you mean the actual exhaust manifold or the turbo or the cat. becasue glowing turbo is normal if you are running it hard, glowing CAT means you are burning excess fuel in it as if a coilpack was out or you are running super rich. But like rich as in the car barley runs because im runing real rich and it backfires like mad whenever i step on it and nothing down there starts glowing. and for the actual manifold, i have never seen it glow.