I have a 2002 A6 3.0 liter that I bought in pieces. I put it together, but it cranks and won't run. There is no injector pulse and no spark. There is power and ground to coils/injectors. No trouble codes.

Is it possible to put the flex plate on wrong so that the perceived crank position is out of sync with cam position causing no spark condition (and with no trouble codes)?

 

It's kind of hard to bolt on the flex plate backward because the bolt holes on the crank will not line up if it's backward. It kind of sounds like the reference sensor is either bad or not plugged up. If the ECU doesn't see the crank turning, it won't fire the injectors or coils.

Was the engine completely apart? Did you do the timing belt and such with the engine out of the car?

 

Thanks Dave944. You're right, the flex plate cannot be put on backward. For one reason because the starter wouldn't engage; the reluctor would be in the way, and the reluctor would hit the block anyway. I just thought that possibly if it saw the crank reluctor out of sinc with the cams (because of the flex plate being bolted on in a wrong rotational relation to the crank), it would assume junk information and shut down. Probably not the case as most cars aren't that sophisticated.

I did find the problem: the crank sensor is just bad. It's odd because it was obviously working when the camshaft broke and there is no obvious damage to it from the previous owner taking the car apart. Just one of those interesting things I guess.

 

I call it the SH Factor... S**t Happens.. LOL