The Outcome (Part 2) of "Audi just shuts off no warning while driving and won't restart"

[Marc Boucher]

Called them back today and after the office guy checked with the mechanic, he admitted that no parts had been changed and they refunded what they'd charged for the "Ignition Coil" (by which they meant the ignition booster, since a coil wouldn have likely been a lot more than $61.

I actually have all the electrical schematics.  And it looks like I'm going to need them soon.   I also noticed that the car was idling high when I drove it home, about 1200-1400 whereas it usually idles right at spec.

I pulled the plug going to the ISV and it didn't do the usual increase in idle speed.

So then I ran the control unit output tests, and sure enough the ISV, which usually makes its usual noisy opening and closing sound was dead silent.  Couldn't detect any breaks in the wiring, and I know for a fact it was idling around 700-800 a few days ago.  The cold start valve also didn't make any noise.  The only thing that I could hear to cycle was the carbon canister solenoid valve.

Looked around to see what exactly they did to solve the "ECU ground" problem.  It appears that they cut the brown and white wire wire coming from the Hall Generator, and bolted it to the engine block in order to act as a ground.  The schematics show that wire should go directly to pin 10 on the ICU.  

Their invoice says that they "Check wiring from ignition distributor coil and ignition ECU, Determine ground signal wire from ECU not functioning, Repair ground wire".  According to the schematics, red-black wire is "+", the Brown-White is "-" and the "green-white" is "0".  Does that make sense, to connect the brown-white wire to the engine block for ground?  If not, could that have defeated the ISV ?

MC


--------------------------------------------------
From: "Huw Powell" <audi at humanspeakers.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 1:54 AM
To: "Marc Boucher" <mboucher70 at hotmail.com>
Cc: <quattro at audifans.com>
Subject: Re: The Outcome (Part 2) of "Audi just shuts off no warning while driving and won't restart"

> 
> 
> On 8/16/2011 11:47 PM, Marc Boucher wrote:
>> I'm still curious why they'd replace the coil if they identified the
>> problem as a defective ground wire at the ECU. Is the ECU grounded in
>> the passenger compartment, or via a ground wire on its harness?
> 
> You have a 20-odd year old car.  Buy the Bentley shop manual on eBay, it 
> has all the schematics.
> 
> Did they show you an old coil with issues when you picked the car up?
> 
>> On the way home, the check engine light came on, then went out 30
>> seconds later. When I got it home, I pulled the following codes:
>>
>> 2312
>> 2232
>> 1111
>> 2411
>> 2411
>> 2132
>> 2122
>> 2123
>> 2312
>> 1111
>>
>> I don't know if the bad grounding of the ECU made it give out spurious
>> signals. So I'll clear the codes tomorrow and watch to see which ones
>> come back.
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------
>> From: "Huw Powell" <audi at humanspeakers.com>
>> Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 10:59 PM
>> To: "Marc Boucher" <mboucher70 at hotmail.com>
>> Cc: <quattro at audifans.com>
>> Subject: Re: The Outcome of "Audi just shuts off no warning while
>> driving and won't restart"
>>
>>> Sounds like you got out cheap, and thanks for posting the resolution.
>>>
>>> The formatting on the invoice/report looks like it might be the same
>>> software Carworks uses, though perhaps the Windows version...
>>>
>>> On 8/16/2011 10:37 PM, Marc Boucher wrote:
>>>> I picked the car up tonight. It was late, and only the receptionist was
>>>> there, so I didn't speak to a mechanic. But the bill is somewhat
>>>> detailed. Here's what is says:
>>>>
>>>> REPLACE IGNITION BOOSTER
>>>> Temporarily install ordered ignition module, sill no-start.
>>>> Check wiring from ignition distributor coil and ignition ECU.
>>>> Determine ground signal wire from ECU not functioning.
>>>> Repair ground wire and roadtest to check.
>>>>
>>>> All of that was only 1/2 hour of labor, which is pretty good in my view
>>>> for a non-audi shop. I can't imagine getting all that done in 1/2 hour.
>>>> Then again, on the day it arrived they charged 0.8 hours labor to
>>>> "verify cranks but doesn't start".
>>>>
>>>> That's all the labor. For the parts, they've charged me $61 for an
>>>> ignition coil. Not certain why they'd charge me for an ignition coil if
>>>> the problem was a ground signal wire. When I can see it in the daylight,
>>>> I just want to verify that there is in fact a new coil in place.
>>>>
>>>> MC
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> quattro mailing list
>>>> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/quattro
>>>> http://www.audifans.com/kb/List_information
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----
>>>> No virus found in this message.
>>>> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
>>>> Version: 10.0.1392 / Virus Database: 1520/3839 - Release Date: 08/16/11
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> quattro mailing list
>> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/quattro
>> http://www.audifans.com/kb/List_information
>>
>>
>> -----
>> No virus found in this message.
>> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
>> Version: 10.0.1392 / Virus Database: 1520/3839 - Release Date: 08/16/11
>>
>>
>