Engine shuts off after starting

[FLaSalvia4]

Hey everyone,

I have a 1996 Audi A4 2.6L V6. I've been having problems recently with starting the engine. This does not happen all of the time, but it is starting to happen more often now that it is getting colder out. When I start my car it'll rev up to ~1.3K RPM, stay there for about 2 seconds and then the engine will cut out. The second time I do it, it never starts, it goes up to about 500RPM and dies. The third time is usually when it would always start with no problem, except for today. Today it took me about 10 tries (with a minute or two break in between each try) to get it started. It usually only happens on the first start of the day but it has happened more than once a day.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated and if you need any more information from me, I'd be glad to give it to you.

Thank you

[dansansome]

have you tried changing the battery in your keyfob? i have similar symptoms to this occasionally, change the keyfob battery and all is ok again. basically its the immobiliser not getting a decent enough signal from the transponder and then killing the engine.

worth trying as a starting point for approx £2

[zollaf]

unfortunately, the imobiliser chip s not connected to the battery in the key fob. it is just a chip that is read by the ecu. the battery is just for opening and closing the doors.
your fault could be the imobiliser though, but the best place to start would be a fault code read, to see what the ecu says is wrong. there are so many things it could be you see, that a code read is the only place to start.
welcome to the forum as well :)

[Doctle Odd]

Transponder is probably a bit tired they cost a fiver but you need to get the pin to get the key coded. (vag-tacho works fine on older audis)

[dansansome]

unfortunately, the imobiliser chip s not connected to the battery in the key fob. it is just a chip that is read by the ecu. the battery is just for opening and closing the doors.

oops. Sorry.

is that a b5 thing? Or is that common across other models? (Like mine for instance b6 cab)

[zollaf]

it is common to basically every car that has an immobiliser chip in the key. the chip is read by the aerial on the ignition column and if it reads ok, switches the ecu to start mode. the battery in the fob powers the signal to open and close the doors. the funny thing is, changing the battery should never help starting problems, but the amount of people that have said it does makes you wonder sometimes. the old rovers circa 1990's used the signal from the fob to switch the immob off and had no key chip, but these were too easy to bypass, so in those a flat battery meant no start, but most other cars use a chip.

[dansansome]

it is common to basically every car that has an immobiliser chip in the key. the chip is read by the aerial on the ignition column and if it reads ok, switches the ecu to start mode. the battery in the fob powers the signal to open and close the doors. the funny thing is, changing the battery should never help starting problems, but the amount of people that have said it does makes you wonder sometimes. the old rovers circa 1990's used the signal from the fob to switch the immob off and had no key chip, but these were too easy to bypass, so in those a flat battery meant no start, but most other cars use a chip.

cheers zollaf, every days a school day :) so strange that its happened a couple of times on my car, and I'm sure I get immobiliser warning lights. A new battery has sorted it straight away! :confused:

[zollaf]

well i would welcome someone to come along and tell me i am talking out my rear end :)
will yours still start if you unlock it with the key and not the fob ?

[dansansome]

In general? Or when the car is having starting issues?

im unsure on both counts, but will try tomorrow.

[zollaf]

just in general.

[FLaSalvia4]

I'll try and get a fault code read soon to see what's up. I'm not getting any warning lights when it happens or while it's started. Thanks for the input.

[HAWKS]

I Have a similar fault on my1995 A4 1.8T.
People on her have said it could be a short resister wire that runs up an over the key barrel.

Im sure that there has been a few post on here about a longer wire from Audi that can go a different route around the barrel that fixes this fault.

[FLaSalvia4]

If I get nothing on the fault code, I'll check that out, thanks.

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