When I started my car the other day, it was running pretty bad..like a misfire and a lot of vibration. I noticed the check engine light blinking and immediately shut the car off. I tried again, same result.

I waited a few hours and tried again but the engine wouldn't start at all, it sounded like none of the plugs were firing.

Is the Ignition Control Unit a common problem on the 1.8?

I would say coil pack but... that wouldn't really explain the blinking light or the no start the third time i tried.

What do you think?

I'm waiting for a friend of mine to come with a regular (cheap-ish) code scanner. Does anybody know what kind of codes would come up for this if it is the ICU?

 

blinking cel means catalyst damaging misfire.. the efficiency will go to pot and if you continue driving itll clog your cat up... im guessing youll get p0300 through p0304. not sure about the audi code for icm...

 

It could be flooded it could be a bad ignitor. hold the pedal to the floor and try cranking it again. see what it does and pull the codes for us.

 

The code was a p0300 - p0304....i don't remember exactly (p0302 maybe?)...anyways, Cylinder 3 Misfire.

So my question now is...does that mean cylinder 3 coil pack...or would it be the ICU?

If its the ICU would it only read one cylinder misfire? and also...would it go into 'safe mode' and not allow the car to start? because like i said, it started once...and it felt and sounded like just one cylinder was missing, now...it doesnt start as if none of the plugs are getting spark.

Basically i just need to narrow down..coil pack or ICU.

Thanks a lot.

 

okay you are going to do some diagnostic work. If you know what cylinder it was it would be easier. With the engine running unplug each coil, When you unplug the coil you should here the engine die down, if you dont that is the cylinder not firing. Swap the suspected bad coil to a different cylinder and then see if the misfire follows the coil. If so replace the coil, If the misfire is on the original cylinder then replace the ignition control module(or ignitor different makes have a different name for it but its the same part) good luck