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

Wed Aug 17 19:34:24 PDT 2011

On 8/17/2011 9:49 PM, Marc Boucher wrote:
> 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'd usually say that's a bad idle switch, but....

> 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.*

Nice work.  Striped brown wires are *switched* grounds.

> **
> 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

If it made sense, it would have come that way from the factory.  It 
might be time to dig out or buy a VOM and do some checks yourself.

>
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> 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
>  >>>>
>  >>>>
>  >>>>
>  >>>> _______________________________________________
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>  >>>> http://www.audifans.com/kb/List_information
>  >>>>
>  >>>>
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>  >>>>
>  >>>>
>  >>>
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>  >
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