Alright I have a 99.5 Audi A4, as I speak I am sitting in it playing with my laptop and VAG COM... I just successfully pulled the fault codes, came up with

18010- Power Supply Terminal 30: Voltage too Low (Not worried about this my battery might be low)

17967 - Throttle Valve Control part (J338): Fault in basic settings

17953- Throttle Valve Controller: Malfunction

16988- Internal Control Module: RAM error (Any help on this one??? The car is chipped by the way...)

Anyways- I use the search on the forum and find that the first step for the first 2 codes besides the Power Supply one would be to do a throttle body alignment. I open up the engine controller, (It recongnizes the VAG Number, Soft Coding etc), then click measuring blocks, it says " No response from controller" Now here is where it gets weird... All while this time I am in my car with the ignition turned to on the check engine light has been coming on and off accompanied by a click under the dash (A Relay??) and also a whirring noise towards the back of the car at the exact same time the CEL flashes on or off... I try to click measuring blocks again when the CEL is illuminated... It lets me in!! but before I can do anything I hear the click, the whirring, the CEL goes off, and up on my screen pops " No response from controller!" I wait again for the CEL to come on and the same thing happens.. it lets me in when the CEL is on but it turns off quickly after and I get the same message... If anyone has any clue to what in the heck is going on here please chime in!!!... this car has been sitting in my driveway for 3 months... I live in Juneau AK, a town with no audi dealership and no place that services them.. and best yet it is not on the road system, what am I to do??

 

Ok so while becoming frustrated with my car i physically hit the ecu box while the car is running... the engine cuts out at the exact same time, i try it again, and the same thing happens, i repeatetly do this, each time the engine cuts out according to how hard i hit the unit... i.e. if i punch the box, the engine dies, if i press down slightly, it will sputter and come back to normal idle... I don't know why this could be happening.. all i know that it definatley does not sound normal. Also, when the car is dead with the ignition on and i hit the ecu the check engine light blinks and i hear a noise coming from the throttle body. Any clues on what i should check? Do i have a bad ecu?

 

stop hitting it.

Start by making sure you have a good battery and tight clean terminals

It sounds like you have a bad connection to power whirling noise- probably your fuel pump turning on and off.

You may just have some Ice in the terminals.

Check the ECM and adjoining wires for loose connections clean them up and apply di-electric grease (that will prevent the moisture and salt from attaking the connections) put it back together and see what happens. Tug lightly on the wire a little, I would have to sudgest avoid slapping the ECM around. They are alive, it might remember, and if it does your effed

 

Well as a first step I cleaned the battery terminals and tightened them up, then unplugged the ecu, cleaned the connections on the actual unit itself with electronics cleaner, and plugged it back in, however, now it won't start, it will just keep cranking and never turn over.

 

did you ever manage to sort 16988- Internal Control Module: RAM error ?
im getting that on a 2.0 tdi a3 8p.........car wont start

 

I ended up replacing the ecu... expensive fix... but problem solved

 

ive tried hitting my ecu.......but it aint having any........going pick up ecu tomorrow then get it sorted.......thanks for the reply.

oh by the way how much did it cost you buy ecu and coding? and was it new or 2nd hand?

 

I bought it second hand from someone over on the VW vortex forums... it was a while back so dont exactly remember how much it was but somewhere in the neighborhood of $250-350 for the unit. I was lucky enough to find the same exact unit, so didn't require any coding. There is kind of like a serial number on the top of the ecu and if you get the same one, it should be plug and play, at least for the B5 generation? Im not sure... your tdi might be different, I would also imagine it will be a lot harder to find a used ecu as you dont see diesels around as often... Best of luck!!