1999.5 A4 2.8, owned it since new, it's been an amazingly reliable car, even at 190,000 miles. We've been doing our own maintenance since the warranty expired. It may have been too reliable!

Short version: attempting a throttle body adapt is failing, throwing two errors:
17967 fault in basic settings
17973 throttle actuator lower stop not reached

Long story:

Last weekend the Secondary Air Intake relay got stuck, killing the battery overnight. I replaced the relay, charged (1 year new Audi) battery. Good to go?
No, the car began to randomly stall at idle. First time it's ever run less than perfectly.

First thought: Need to perform a throttle adapt. Never had to do this before: in the past when switching batteries we'd kept the car energized so the original settings have never been lost (yeah, for 13 years the car never lost power

So, finally break down and buy the Ross Tech VCDS software and cable, hook it up, enter Control Group 060 (cause we're drive by cable), listen to the whine sounds, but the VCDS says error. On next restart, the CEL comes on, and the two codes are now in the system.

OK, the throttle body is being asked to do something it hasn't had to do for 13 years, maybe something's stuck. I do a little research, find a couple sites that have articles covering something similar:

VWVortex.com - 17967 - Throttle Valve Control part (J338) fixed
VWVortex.com - Fault code 17967 (P1559) and 17973 (P1565)

So I dug in there, popped the cover on the throttle body to see inside:
the potentiometer photo by samstoat | Photobucket

...and I can see the pot for the second throttle body angle sensor. Playing around, I can move it, but don't know what the default position should be when the primary TBA sensor is at 0.4 degrees (Idle.)

With the VAG-COM software running, when I turn the physical throttle cable, I can see the angle information change as I rotate the throttle arm.
When I (gently) move that second pot, I can see that info update in VAG-COM as well. I've tried setting it at .4, and 1.7 degrees, but going back into group 060, that second TBA reads "ERROR".

These things are known to be bulletproof, anyone know how to recalibrate them, or are we looking at having to replace it?

Thanks in advance!

-Al

 

turn car to on position but do not start car.

in vag com under engine module>basic settings>group 060. turn basic settings on. do not touch pedal. wait till its done. then turn basic settings off.<this is important.

it might fail because you opened the black box and messed with the sensor.. i did the same thing and it wouldn't do the TBA again.

i got same codes and idle too fast codes. so i replaced the throttle body.

 

I followed the basic TBA steps before digging in there, the codes were thrown at the very start. I wouldn't take all of that apart just for fun:P

When it's all apart I can set the second pot at different locations, and depending on where it's at, get different errors during the TBA from "signal too large" to "Throttle valve malfunction".

Following the instructions in the links, and pressing on the pot during the adaptation, can get it further along the adaption process, but I must not be doing things in the right order because while it is in learning mode going through the test positions, it isn't able to complete and errors out rather than performing the adaption.

I put everything back together and it runs fine, no more stalling issues so I must have guessed right, but the CEL is still on with those two codes. I'm willing to bet if I took the throttle body off of our '98, put it on the 99.5 and ran the adaption it would complete and clear the code. But for that much work I think I'll just replace the throttle body.

Though other than being unable to complete the adaption, there's nothing wrong with it...

Thanks for your help!

-Al

 

You can't swap a TB from the 98, which is cable-driven, onto the 99.5, which is drive-by-wire (the 99.5 is considered the facelift and should have the ATQ engine, not the cable-drive AHA of the 98). Redo your throttle adaptation but use 098 instead of 060 and see what you get.

 

yup you can't swap a TB from the 98

 

I have a 98 a6 (I believe aha - vin is wauba34b1wn...)

I'm still learning some of these things but I have the exact same two codes! However, my symptoms are that the car idles perfect and will move forward/back when it's in gear (D or R), but as soon as I push the accelerator and hit 950rpm, it dies.

So, do I need to reset my TB? Do I have the cable? SeattleAl - I'm in Woodinville! Any chance you're available to give me some tips? I recently bought a vagcom so I can give updates on codes.

 

Hey,
I'd try and do the throttle body adaptation. Though I got it really close by just playing with it by hand, it's a car my daughter drives so I went ahead and replaced the ~$450 unit for peace of mind. The part has been superseded, the new version has two vacuum ports that need to be plugged.

I can confirm our 99.5 is most certainly an AHA drive by cable...
I'll be around this weekend to go over the basic steps, but not enough to spend swapping out the part;-)
I did keep the old one if you want to see it out of the car!

-Al

 

I followed the steps on here for the cable throttle:
Ross-Tech: VAG-COM: Throttle Body Alignment

I didn't hear the TB doing anything. And it didn't work. And my battery keeps dying. This lemon is killing me. (nobody's fault but my own though)

I don't have any TB codes now though. I still have a fuel level sensor code and my fuel gauge doesn't work. I'm thinking I need to replace the fuel pump - isn't the pump/sensor combined on the 98's?