I recently bought this 2001 225hp coupe and love it. starting running very rough, ide was normal but just rough. acted like 1 cylinder wasn't working. the vw dealer won't touch it and no audi dealer in rapid city, sd.

I replaced plugs, they all looked ok and made no change. the car does have hgher miles, 130k, but I have lots of receipts from the old owner.

do the coil packs ever go bad? any suggestions?

my check engine light has never come on but it does say "service" when I start the car.

I'm not used to modern cars! any thoughts would be great. My wife is freaking out that I blew a bunch of money on a lemmon.

thanks!

Peter Schmid

 

update - I checked for hours online trying to learn about this problem. lots of coil pack problems. one person described the car sounding like a wrx, which mine now does. grunty, rough, muscle car-ish. not smooth.

I read a suggestion to remove coil packs while car running and listen for a "pop" all four had some popping going on.

should i buy set of packs or move on?

thanks again - ps

 

I would start you car and begin uplugging coil packs.unplug 1 at time and then plug it back in you should see notice your car will run worse when you unplug each coil pack.the one that does not change the way the engine runs when you unplug is more than likely the defective coil. Now besure to check because there is a recall for this and you may beable to get them replaced for free.

Yes coil packs go bad all the time at leasts the push on ones. The ones that are held in with 2 bolts very rarly fail.

If your coil pack are the push in style you propably damaged them when you replaced the plugs.

 

mine are held in place with 2 screws each. I'll unplug one at a time this evening and report back.

PS

 

update - and I hope this helps

at idle, all four of my cylinders are firing. I would pull the connection on each coil, and the car would run worse as each cylinder was disconnected. I didn't find a cylinder not firing at idle.

when I rev it up, with everything hooked up, it is rough. the problem came almost at once, not a gradual thing.

love the car, but no it reminds me of my od VW van than my honda.

PS

 

I had the same issue but on my '97. I thought it was plugs and coils, just like you. I took it to a shop out of frusration, and found that it was the ignition control module. I didn't think it would be possible for just one cylinder to go down with a bad ignition module, but that's what happened. I would expect that an ignition control module would cause all cylinders to stop, but not in my case. Overall, cost me about $700 at an all german repair shop in Indy. Good thing was that it took about 15 minutes to fix because they had one in stock. Seriously a fast repair, which helps on the labor costs. The part just costs a $hitload.

Good luck getting it resolved.

Cory

 

excellent idea - I'll look into it today. I'll keep posting updates in case any one else has the problem.

PS

 

You may want to clean your MAF sensor, with some electrical cleaner.
A dirty/failing MAF will cause rough idles, and decrease performance.
It's also a fairly common fail part on TT's, so you can reassure your wife that you didn't buy a lemon.

Do a search in the TT section if you have any questions on where the MAF sensor is, or how to clean it.

 

I used my lunch break to run up to checker auto for a scan; they found nothing. my check engine light was on but that was from me messing with and unplugging the coil packs.

I'll clean the MAF, pretty cheap and quick to try. the car idles great, around 800, just rough running. no smoke or wierd smells.

If I can fix this on my own cheaply my wife's opnion of me will sky rocket and her parents won't be proved right that I shouldn't have bought a car like this w/o a dealer in town.