96 A6Q Intermittent start

[Phil and Judy Rose]

At 8:18 PM -0400 5/1/07, Eric Huppert wrote:
>Gents,
>
>Sorry for the post here, but think the type 44 gets a tad more traffic!
>
>Had bought, rehabbed and sold ($1k in parts) a clean 96 A6 Avant in the
>fall. Was sold locally to a guy I know...
>
>He just called and they're having a intermittent start issue. Occasionally
>car won't start (when hot), but if allowed to sit will start after a while.
>Does crank, but doesn't start. Tonight they had to let it sit for 45 minutes
>before it would fire.

Could be many things, but one of the most common causes of such a 
symptom in our older models is a fuel line that is losing pressure 
after shutdown.  This can be be a result of things such as one (or 
more) leaking injectors or a defective check valve (at the fuel pump 
end). The symptoms usually get much worse as the weather gets hot; 
also might almost disappear in cold weather. Letting the car sit for 
some time (30-45 minutes is common) allows the engine to cool enough 
so that the ECU uses a special "cold-start" mode which tends to 
overcome the low fuel-pressure situation.

Phil
-- 
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*  Phil & Judy Rose           Rochester, NY  *      
*        mailto:pjrose at frontiernet.net       *
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