[s-cars] Non S-Car: A4 Stumble

[ELLIEOLSEN at aol.com]

Could it be bad ignition wires?  I had a similar situation on my 200  five 
years ago.
 
Shawn
Clarkston MI
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 1/5/2005 4:45:59 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
powellb at gmail.com writes:

Greetings listers,

My wife's A4 (96 12v V6) is having a stumble  under load problem that I
cannot trace down. I have tried Audiworld, etc.  so I will try here.

Car seems fine, idles fine, etc. Sometimes under  load (accelerating
from 2k rpm in 3rd gear) the car begins to stumble  badly. It feels
like a pre-detonation and drop back in timing; however, the  gas is
what she has always used without problem. I hooked up VAG-COM  and
sometimes an error code is logged:

16689 - cylinder 5 misfire  detected 
p0305 - 69-00 - cylinder 2

(I'm not sure what that  cylinder 2 part of the above message means).

This code does not always  appear after a stumble incident (if I clear
the code, go drive and get it  stumble); however, it always comes
eventually. I have moved the plugs  around, tested the coils, plug
wires, PSO, etc. and nothing has had an  impact. This car has three
coils and one PSO so, if the coil were the  issue, I should register
misfires on cylinder 3 also (since 5 and 3 are on  the same coil).

It doesn't ever turn on the CEL, but, sometimes does  enter the above
error code. The misfire detection (as I understand it) will  flip the
code if there are any slight deviations so it is only an  indicator, I
suppose.

I have thought about poor fuel delivery, FPR,  etc.; however, any of
those issues should register misfires on other  cylinders, not just 5.

Anyone have any tips or suggestions? 

--  
Cheers,