Hi Folks,

I have an A4 2.8 Quattro, 1999.

The other day I went out of town for a few days and when I came back I found that the battery was dead. I charged it OK, but then I couldn't get the car to start with an idling engine. It would only start if I hit the gas pedal and as soon as I took the foot off the pedal the engine would stop.

I also got an engine light warning and when checking the codes with VAG-COM, I found the following 2 errors:

17967 - Throttle Body (J338): Fault in basic settings - P1559 - 35-00 - -
17953 - Throttle Valve Controller: Malfunction - P1545 - 35-00 - -

I read through a couple of threads and people seemed to suggest that I would need to do a Throttle Body Alignment via VAGCOM. So I performed the following procedure:

Turn the key on but do not start the car.

[Select]
[01 - Engine]
[Measuring Blocks - 08]
[Group = 098]
[Go!]
[Switch to basic settings]
[Switch to Meas. Blocks] button and you're all set.

Unfortunately it did not help and the same symptoms & errors show up.

Any other clues, procedures I should be looking at? The problem is I can't even drive it to any shop due to the fact that as soon as I take the foot of the pedal, engine dies.

I also tried keeping the rev @ 3k for more than a minute to try and stabilize the idle, but the engine overheats and smoke starts to come out...

 

OK I fixed it...I tried the procedure again after clearing all the codes and it worked ! The idle rev seems to be a bit low, but it's holding on now...did another full scan and no errors found...whew...lost 5 lbs in sweat !