Hey Everyone,

This forum seems to have a lot of really experienced people when it comes to Audis. I know a little about them, but am having some problems and am hoping you guys can help me find the problem.....

2003 A4 1.8t, stickshift, 140,000 miles

Engine quitting!!! I was on the freeway today and the engine "coughed" pretty hard, but kept running. A few minutes later, when slowing down for the exit, I pulled the engine out of gear - it idled normally for a few seconds and then quit. It started again OK, but then kept quitting at idle, the same way as before - it idles fine for a few seconds, then quits suddenly.

I did notice that when I got it running again, it seemed to run fine as long as the RPMs were up. But once it was back down at idle, it would quit about every other time.

Somewhere in there the CEL light showed up, and I got a P0321 code. Searching on here, I found that this might be the speed sensor. I don't think I saw the CEL light come on before I had resorted to a few downhill bump-starts to get the motor going again, and I know that it can sometimes cause nuisance codes. I will get another speed sensor, even though I checked the connector on the current one which seemed fine. Hopefully this will remedy today's problems. I just reset that code, so we will see if/when it shows up again.

QUESTION: Does this sound typical for a wiring issue with the speed sensor or for the sensor itself dying - does anyone know about that?

OTHER ISSUES: There's been some minor issues for a while - maybe they could be somewhat related to the sensor - maybe not....

1) MPGs have never been that great with this car. I seem to get about 24 mpg on the freeway, which I hear is a little low.

2) All along (I've had the car about a year) when idling, it is not uncommon for the motor to suddenly drop one or two hundred RPMs, and come right back up to normal idle, like a brief "hiccup".

Over the past year of owning this car, I have:
-changed the timing belt, water pump, etc.
-changed the BIG fuel filter under the seats.
-cleaned the throttle body
-switched to a K@N air filter element in the regular filter box
-plugs look fine, compression is fine
-dealer replaced all four coils (I guess that was a recall)
-changed an oxygen sensor.
-new tires and brakes (YES with the proper PSI)
-I always run super unleaded

I was wondering if it might be a good idea to pull off the injectors and see how they look, and make sure that the fuel rail is clean, etc. Good idea? Bad idea? (I haven't searched the forum yet on this one)

ALSO, would it help to get the OBD hooked up to my laptop to see if I can see anything unusual with the "live data" while I'm driving?

The car (with today's exception of hopefully just the speed sensor) seems to run fine, but those last two issues have pretty much always been there....

SO, any guesses on this?

Thanks - I couldn't have done almost ANY of this without this forum!!

 

Anybody.....?