# Flashing CEL then car died



## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

Ok so here's the scenario.

I'd had a solid CEL on the past few months, sometimes would run a bit rough on cold start but never affected performance or anything like that.

Fast forward to yesterday. Going 130km/hr for about an hour, CEL started flashing, engine shaking under load. I was about 2 kms from my destination so I slowed it down and kept going. The CEL stopped flashing, car was back to normal. This happened 2 times where it would flash, start shaking and then stop flashing (stay solid) and power was back. 

Got off the hwy was waiting for the light to turn green. CEL was flashing again, RPM's dropped to 500 ish, was running REALLY bad, I decided to try to at least get it to my parents house (destination) which wasn't too far. Got about 500m down the road the engine cut out and died. Still had electrical power but wouldn't start. I tried cranking it once and then left it. Ended up getting it towed to a local shop I know.

Timing was done 2 years ago (got a TB kit for parts). A first I thought coil packs but I didn't think they'd make the engine entirely cut out? For some reason I didn't pull off the TB cover to make sure it didn't break.. but any other thoughts?


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## mushroom_curry (Apr 21, 2004)

You would think that a failing coil wouldn't completely zap out like that, but from what you're describing, especially with the CEL flashing and the car running that way, I wouldn't be surprised.

If not the coil itself, some electrical issue affecting the function of the coil?

Please do chime in with whatever it turns out to be.


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## Murderface (Nov 13, 2006)

Probably just the coilpacks. 

Although if you got a TB kit with a non OEM tensioner, the tensioner could have crapped out prematurely (mine almost did after 18k miles).


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## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

AFAIK it was all OEM parts from the kit. 

It was suggested on another forum that maybe the engine speed sensor for ignition timing took a dump too.


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## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

Heard from the shop, looks to be coilpacks  Stupid 1.8T's.


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## mushroom_curry (Apr 21, 2004)

Neb said:


> Heard from the shop, looks to be coilpacks  Stupid 1.8T's.


Yeah it sounded word for word like an issue I had with a 1.9T setup.


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## Mantvis (Jan 1, 2010)

so like 3 coils packs had to die on you...
i had my car run on 2 cylinders, with 2 coil packs not working...


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## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

apparently it started this morning. but then wouldn't start in the afternoon  it seems odd that it won't fire but we'll see after a new coil pack


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## mushroom_curry (Apr 21, 2004)

Any remote chance there's damage to the harness/plug at the coilpack?

Grounding issue?


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## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

Well back in the fall I had a shop look over the harness and they said it was all good (but I personally didn't get a chance to closely inspect every wire)


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## bklnstunt718 (May 30, 2007)

hope u get it figured out ben


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## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

So did a compression test and I have zero compression in cylinder 4  180 in the rest though


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## Mantvis (Jan 1, 2010)

like ive said there is something else wrong, the TT will run and drive on 2 cylinders. 
maybe ecu is not letting the car drive? 

any plans?


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## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

that's possible. I'll know more once the head comes off. Probably won't do anything but clean it up. Maybe chip it as the shop it's at does that stuff too


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## DurTTy (Aug 14, 2007)

Neb said:


> So did a compression test and I have zero compression in cylinder 4  180 in the rest though


 ouch..... 

hopefully you didnt drop a valve in the cylinder or anything related to the rings. 

-- no compression is no fun --


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## bauch1425 (Jun 29, 2006)

Going through this on my TT after timing skips some teeth... one bent valve in cylinder 1 - $1K later and I'll have a rebuilt head at the end of the week.


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## mushroom_curry (Apr 21, 2004)

Neb said:


> So did a compression test and I have zero compression in cylinder 4  180 in the rest though


 F*


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## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

mushroom_curry said:


> F*


 yeah not too happy. Mechanic has been too busy to pull the head too  Getting kind of bummed out having no car and it not being worked on.


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## Doooglasss (Aug 28, 2009)

Sorry man- I'm going through something similar.

Were you there for the compression test? Do you know if when he pulled the spark plug if it was mangled? did you look into the cylinder with a flashlight to see if the piston looked black or silver (silver being bad).

Since you said that your car isn't even chipped I wonder what happened...

What's your motor code BTW? Back in the day my friend had an AWD GTi that managed to bend 16 of the 20 valves while driving quite normally. He had them replaced and the car did it again. He sold it after that...


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## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

I wasn't there for the tests at all. Engine code is ATC. He says that he thinks I had a really bad misfire in the 4th cylinder causing the failure.


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## bauch1425 (Jun 29, 2006)

If you've got zero compression, somethings up...


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## Doooglasss (Aug 28, 2009)

bauch1425 said:


> If you've got zero compression, somethings up...


 I would think about finding a different mechanic-- You do a compression test by pulling the fuel injectors and spark plugs, there isn't the possibility of a misfire when there is no fire to be made...

If you have zero compression that means you have a much more major issue sorry man. Pulling the head isn't a hard task, I can get mine off in about an hour now- maybe you want to try it yourself?


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## raart (Aug 9, 2010)

Hey there, 

if you really need to find another mechanic contact me and maybe my mechanic can take a look into.... The good thing is that your car is silver (like mine) and want make him trouble at work place. He works for Audi and is competent however I need first to talk to him and find out if he has a time and we will go from there... if you decide to...


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## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

DougLoBue said:


> I would think about finding a different mechanic-- You do a compression test by pulling the fuel injectors and spark plugs, there isn't the possibility of a misfire when there is no fire to be made...
> 
> If you have zero compression that means you have a much more major issue sorry man. Pulling the head isn't a hard task, I can get mine off in about an hour now- maybe you want to try it yourself?


 He did pull the the injector and plugs... I dunno it's all speculation until its apart at this point. Problem is that I'm a good hour away from the car.


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## DurTTy (Aug 14, 2007)

Neb said:


> He did pull the the injector and plugs... I dunno it's all speculation until its apart at this point. Problem is that I'm a good hour away from the car.


 Neb, 

its a shame u broke down by kitchener. 

if you have CAA Plus, they will tow the car fro 200kms free i beleive. 

i had my bro's car towed from wassaga to TO last summer, the tard ran with no oil in a heat wave day. :facepalm: 

FWIW, William @ AST 905-453-4400 is VAG tech certified for future reference


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## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

and... my top end is toast. 

Talked to my mechanic today, he pulled the head said something totally ****ed everything. The camshaft is worn and pitted, intake camshaft is totally destroyed, scar marks on the bearings.. says it looks like it got starved for oil. Also that one of the oil passages was plugged going to the tensioner (or something like that, I don't really know). 

He has to check the bottom end, suggested changing the bearings and connecting rod bearings as they're probably worse than the top. Has to swap the entire top for sure. 

And yes he's going to show my parts too so I can see how bad they are (just so i know he's not making things up) 

Turbo is ok though but suggested i should upgrade to GT35 with new rods


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## Doooglasss (Aug 28, 2009)

I'm sure he checked but double check your cylinder walls for damage. If you had parts flying around then something could have scratched them...

That oil passage by the tensioner (right hand side of the head by the FW) is the only oil passage up to the head IIRC


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## bklnstunt718 (May 30, 2007)

get a vr6 24v 
 
sorry bout the motor


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## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

Update:

identical low mileage head has been sourced and sent out for cleaning.
he's going to replace the seals and clean up the valves (instead of having to try to replace mine and repair my head)

Also going to change out bearings on the bottom end so everything will be nice and tight. 

So hopefully I'll be in decent shape by the end of the week.


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## DurTTy (Aug 14, 2007)

Neb said:


> Update:
> 
> identical low mileage head has been sourced and sent out for cleaning.
> he's going to replace the seals and clean up the valves (instead of having to try to replace mine and repair my head)
> ...


:thumbup:

glad to see you moving forward despite the failure. 

i suggest to re-ring the motor as well... since you are there. :thumbup:

y dont u grab a set of rods since you already doing the work? just a thought


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## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

stock rods are fine so there's no need too at this point. I don't plan on BT'ing this car so as long as they're good no sense in wasting the money


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## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

So another quick update. Mechanic thinks that the type of oil being used and a bad bottom end bearing was the cause of this failure. He says with these engines you need to be checking your oil level 1 a week as you won't get a proper warning light when you're running low on oil. He's actually seen numerous times where this is the case.


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## DurTTy (Aug 14, 2007)

Curious,

what oil are you using? 

5w40 Castrol Syntec?


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## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

No it was the 5W40 Total (formerly Elf, although they changed the properties of the oil when it went from Elf-Total)


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## DurTTy (Aug 14, 2007)

Neb said:


> No it was the 5W40 Total (formerly Elf, although they changed the properties of the oil when it went from Elf-Total)


Syntec 5w40 is the dealership synthetic that they use.


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## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

Sad bump.

There's a 1cm scratch on the top of they cylinder wall. What would you do? From the looks of it, chances are the motor has had a rebuild before now. Probably broken timing belt (hence how ****ed everything is)


1. burn piece of **** 1.8T
2. rebuild it using a sourced bottom end
3. bore and get bigger pistons

There's a totally fresh top end waiting to go on. Again don't want to go BT but then is there a point to boring anything? Maybe adding cams and a chip?

**** I'm so over this car right now.


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## SoloGLI (Jan 20, 2005)

Damn... sorry to hear Ben. There's no point in boring out the motor if you're not going to go BT. You're probably better off sourcing a new bottom end and rebuilding back to stock specs and then rechipping the car. You seem to be content with a stockish motor, so no reason to go crazy rebuilding it.


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## bklnstunt718 (May 30, 2007)

hey ben.. sorry to hear

no point of boring out the motor if youre not planning on making lots more power.. 

Id personally look out for a vr6 24valve..ive been hearing its a pretty easy simple swap...


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## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

Damage!


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## trixx (Dec 23, 2002)

Man that's some fugly damage... but look on the bright side, you'll have a fresh(er) motor that you won't need to worry about for a long while :thumbup:

I'll have my garage ready soon... detailing days with beer and BBQ in hand very soon :beer:


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## Neb (Jan 25, 2005)

trixx said:


> Man that's some fugly damage... but look on the bright side, you'll have a fresh(er) motor that you won't need to worry about for a long while :thumbup:
> 
> I'll have my garage ready soon... detailing days with beer and BBQ in hand very soon :beer:


Yes yes and more yes :beer:


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## Doooglasss (Aug 28, 2009)

You're in Toronto but I know a guy in NY selling a bottom end with 47k on it for $300 or best offer... sucks that you're so far away. Maybe there is someone in your area offering the same deal?

If you're never planning on going with a larger turbo there is no point behind you putting in larger sized pistons. Since you're having a mechanic do this work it's going to cost you to pull the motor then the machine shop costs then the cost of pistons and you'd be dumb not to put forged $300 rods in at that point. Before you know it you're going to be spending a lot of money on a project that you will never benefit from. I think you should try to source a used bottom end.


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