Audi just shuts off no warning while driving and won't restart. Firsttime ever, in 11 years

[John Lagnese]

1st, pop the cap and see if the rotor is turning. My next thought is the
sender on the flywheel. If it broke off the car won't go. BTDT.

-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-bounces at audifans.com] On
Behalf Of Marc Boucher
Sent: Saturday, August 13, 2011 1:24 PM
To: quattro at audifans.com
Subject: Audi just shuts off no warning while driving and won't restart.
Firsttime ever, in 11 years

Last night my Audi just shut off, no warning, while driving.  In 11 years,
this is the first time its ever done that.  Its never even run rough.

I wasn't able to restart it, in fact it didn't even kick as thought it was
attempting to start.

I was going about 50 miles per hour.  It wasn't particularly hot and it had
been running perfectly until that moment.

I tried to discern if the problem was electrical or fuel.  In about an hour
worth of cranking, (on and off of course so as to preserve the battery), it
only barely kicked over once for 1/2 a second.  That 1/2 second led me to
believe that it must be fuel related.  That tied to the fact that there was
no smell of gas after a lot of cranking.

Then again, the fuel pump (and filter) had been changed about 7000 miles
ago.  And when the pump failed, it was kind of puttering, and would restart
and run for short times.

I was far from my regular Audi garage so I had it towed to a CAA garage
(equivalent of the AAA).  They later called and left a message saying that
its the "Ignition Booster".  So they will call the Audi dealer on Monday,
ask for a price for this part, and get back to me.

I googled "Ignition Booster" and I believe what they're talking about is
generally referred to as the "Ignition Amplifier".

This morning I called a local store that sells parts for European cars at a
cost far less than the dealer.   He refers to the part as the "Ignition
Transition Unit" which looks like a plug, which looks like what I saw online
under "Ignition Amplifier".

Car is an Audi 100, 1990, NF engine, non-quattro, non-turbo.

Here is the sequence of events:  One moment car is driving normally at 50
mph, then we hear what sounds like a backfire, at that same moment, car
starts to lose power, yellow check engine light goes on, and about 1 second
later the tachometer drops to zero, and we coast to a stop.

I need to make a decision as to whether I let this garage start changing out
parts, or bite the bullit and get it toed for probably $200 to my usual Audi
garage.

This my question is, does this sound like a probable cause (Ignition
Amplifier/booster/transition unit) ?  The guy at the parts store was
skeptical because he says that its just not an item that they see fail.  But
I checked back with the garage and according to the receptionist, the
mechanic noted that there's no spark.

Your best guess, based on your prior experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks

MC






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