Lasse H

Hi, Sorry for delayed response. Unfortunately no updates here. The car was in use until few months ago. After that it has rested in garage waiting for decision what to do with it. When just avoiding starts with hot engine it worked just fine. No even single engine fault light blink. My car's problem is likely in the camshaft adjustment device, based on logs and repair shop's investigations. Just I am surprised not to find basically any stories about other broken A2 FSI timing adjustment units. Even the initial diesel-like sound that the unit makes, which sounded apparently broken to diagnosis guys here (with mostly Volvo and BMW background), seems to be widely regarded as perfectly normal by A2 FSI owners. I would not be surprised if the stratified mode transition (which you are referring to?) coincidences also with camshaft timing adjustment change. Does your engine work basically OK unless it is started hot?

Great tips! Thanks everybody! The car has 180000km. Driving profile has been mostly city driving (30-70km/h) with some weekly motorway (usually max 100km/h) and highway (80-100km/h) driving. No speeds over 120km/h. Daily driving to work about 10km through city. Generally the engine feels quite good, but has never idled super smooth (during 4 years I've had it) and very slight misfire has been noticeable certain occasionally (for example driving slight downhill with cruise control) . I've always fueled 98E and twice used injector cleaner (no change). The EGR valve got broke and was changed to a new part a couple years ago. The EGR pipe is original I think. The head was cleaned and rebuilt in January 2017 (checked thoroughly after major coolant leak -- exact reason not known -- sudden high pressure in coolant system which broke from 3 locations). Normal misfire does not light the engine fault indicator in dashboard. But after heated properly and restarted, the light blinks. Sometimes it stays on. The car even passed yearly inspection in early summer, no issues with emissions. But I went there while engine not yet fully heated and had cleared error codes week ago or so. I had chance to get the car back from the diagnostics shop, and already did a bit logging. Fuel pressure readings were not obviously wrong, but I'll take a better look at it still and do more logging. I also logged camshaft timing. First it was OK, but after running engine hot, waiting some minutes and restarting... Intake cam timing really did stop following the setting! Engine fault light blinks, but only misfire codes get logged. Worst misfire and power loss happened exactly during this camshaft issue. So definitely there is a problem with camshaft adjustment. I checked the control solenoid N205, but it looked clean. No obvious damage. Electrically it works too (makes clicking sound). Either it malfunctions only after properly hot, or the issue is in the timing adjustment unit (in front of the intake camshaft). I tried cleaning the N205 but it was essentially clean already. Replace it, or still try better cleaning? The timing adjustment unit is expensive and a lot more work is needed to replace it.

I can't record my car now, as it is still at the carage. But I found Maserati cam variator noise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37Y2xRXtjs8 Tone is higher, but definitely there is some similarity!

I had a brief phone call with the diagnosis guy again. He was telling the typical (at least I thought so...) sound during BAD start is actually coming from the intake camshaft timing adjustment unit, and that it should not make that sound. Could it be? I thought it was from high-pressure fuel pump or hydraulic valve lifter, and completely normal.

Many thanks for advice again. I have never seen misfire error from all cylinders during same fault code reading. Usually they are from 2 or 3 different cylinders, and "random misfire" (can't remember exact wording or code number ). I will check old error logs at home in evening. However, I remember in some point some cylinder stopped giving misfire codes, it "moved" to another. I do not remember if there is one cylinder which has never given any misfires codes. Probably not. However, ECU's misfire diagnosis probably is not 100% robust and codes can be "parasitic"...? I assume misfires are calculated from crankshaft speed sensor. But maybe some other inputs or conditions are considered also... I am only guessing. Does a fuel pump (low or high pressure) issue show misfire error codes for every cylinder? Sounds reasonable that it would, but does it work like this in reality? Swapping coils, or changing the worst misfiring to a new coil, did not change anything. I have not swapped spark plugs myself, but thought a Bosch Service diagnosis shop did it. Spark plugs were changed in January during other repairs.

Vielen danke für alle! Das ist sicher besser Englisch als mein Deutsch. Yeah, there definitely is misfire, but is it caused by too lean fuel mixture (blocked fuel system?), ignition issue or something else? The fuel pump in tank definitely could be an issue. It is most likely the original one. Maybe misfire cylinder detection just is not so good so misfire errors appear not evenly on all cylinders? I was wishing that serious misfire and power loss after restarting a warm engine would have given some idea about the reason. But there is still too many possible reasons. Maybe it is something ECU does differently, and not directly caused by the mechanical problem.

Fault codes in https://a2-freun.de/forum/forums/topic/26646-fsi-zündaussetzer/ look very familiar to me. Could a standing warm engine cause heat build up to injectors, and cause power loss and misfire, after asking more torque from a restarted warm engine...? I did not notice anyone else telling about similar symptom, but maybe I just missed it.

Thanks! I could post a typical failure code log later. Anyway, there is only misfire codes, typically 'random misfire' and misfire from two or three different cylinders. I have logged cylinder-specific misfire counters. When idling, some counters increase sometimes quickly. Some misfire is audible from engine running, but not that much. Misfires appear/move in different cylinders. Is detection just not working? Changing a new coil or swapping coils did not affect it. Injectors have not been checked. As far as I know, there is no way to reliably diagnose them without removing them. I guess this should be the next step anyway.

As this is relatively important thing to me now, better I do not even try writing German. But feel free to answer in German if preferred. The car is a 1.6 FSI with misfire problem. Misfires do not seem to be caused by spark plugs or coils. Fuel consumption is not excessive. Car is generally quite OK to drive, but misfire is occasionally noticeable. Not bad idle, but there definitely is misfire. Power OK but probably not all there. Engine went through relatively big overhaul in January after a major coolant leak, but it behaved quite similar even before it. It even passed yearly emission test. But, when engine has warmed up, turned off, and restarted after some time (like 15 minutes), misfire is horrible and power is near totally lost. After few minutes driving it is again relative OK. Diagnostics shop suggests now the issue could be intake camshaft timing adjustment unit. Solenoid is clicking as expected, but they told me disconnecting the solenoids connector did not change engine idles or runs on higher revs. I was told "normally an engine dies when this solenoid is disconnected" (they are *not* VAG specialists however!) They suggest changing the whole timing unit (780€ part + 4 hours work). They are not sure if timing unit is the problem, but are telling me everything else seems to be OK and have no other suggestions. Also, they are complaining how difficult to diagnose this FSI is because of so little sensor readings available. VCDS has never showed any cam timing related errors for this engine, only misfires. Is cam timing really not diagnosed by the ECU? I have also never read about issues with this timing unit from Finnish forums or a2oc.net (for a2-freun.de my language skill is too limited). Is this normal? Should they first try just changing the solenoid (even though it clicks) instead of whole unit? Any other ideas or views how to proceed? Many thanks already, all thoughts about this will be much appreciated.

Ich entschuldige mich, I don't understand completely... Meinst du Lenkrad (zum Beispiel) A3/S3 8L von 1997 oder neur ist kompatibel für A2? Ich finde alte Form möglicherweise komfortabler. Ich meine Lenkräder wie dieses: http://www.ebay.de/itm/Lenkrad-mit-Airbag-Airbaglenkrad-Audi-A3-1-6-E-Bj-1997-/141190994603

Danke, mir geht es gut. Ich habe Deutsch in der Schule studiert. Aber das war vor über 10 Jahren... Ich verstehe Deutsch besser als schreiben. Und mein Englisch ist viel besser, feel free to reply in English too! Ja, ich kenne Bret! Er half mit meinem Autokauf letztes Jahr. Vielen Dank für diese Probefahrtmöglichkeit. Aber ich würde gerne Sportfahrwerk bereits in diesem Sommer zu installieren. Es sieht wie B6 ist eine gute Option. Koni Gelb ist auch sehr interessant aufgrund der Einstellbarkeit. B6 scheint zu sein mehr beliebt hier und a2oc.net.

Hat jemand Erfahrung mit Koni Sport Kit (1140-3881)? Sind die Federn gleiche "zu hart" H&R, die nicht empfohlen für A2 werden? Produktnummer für Polo 9N ist anders (1140-3331 und 1140-3332), vielleicht das Kit für A2 funktionieren würde ok? Ich habe Probleme bei der Entscheidung zwischen Koni Gelb und Bilstein B6. Mein A2 ist 1.6 FSI, ohne ein OSS.