Please help, no spark!!

[Coupe-boy!]

Can anyone help with this topic? I own a '95 2.6 coupe that now has no spark. The symptoms preceding the total loss of spark are that every now and then it would crank over but fail to start. This happened both hot and cold. After numerous attempts to start, i would leave it for maybe 10 minutes and it would start, sometimes faltering into life, other times straight on the button as if nothing was ever wrong. Now it has no spark no matter how many times i have tried it. I had the AA look at it when it last failed to start and they said that there was no signal coming back from the crank position sensor. I rang eurocarparts and they said that it has 2 fitted, both with the same part number. I rang the AA guy that looked at it and informed him of this and he said that the of two connectors he checked, it was the far right hand one that was not giving any pulse reading. The ignition amplifier had power to it apparently. With this information i was confident that only one of the sensors was faulty so i bought one. I set about fitting it but as they are in such an awkward position i thought i would check to see if it was going to work first by just fitting it to the block and plugging it into the connector. Lo and behold, still no spark! Having spent an hour in the darkand freezing cold, i gave up without fitting the new sensor to the second position to see if it was that one that was faulty. That is my next conquest. The reason i'm posting this is that i've noticed that the brake warning light and temperature warning light at the top of the dash display are flashing, i presume to indicate a fault somewhere? They flash with the ignition on and also when it is cranking. Does anyone know what this is is indicating? I understand some manufacturers use this system for different faults, ie, different warning lights flash to indicate different faults in different sytems. I'd appreciate any help anyone can share with me on this subject as although the car technically isnt worth spending lost of cash on, i just love it!! Can anyone out there save it from the scrap heap?

[towcestervag]

the crank sensors are down to the right of engine situated in gearbox bellhousing the front one is engine speed signal measures teeth on ring gear the back one is TDC sensor measures 1 pin on flywheel if the speed sensor is the fault i would change rear sensor

[Coupe-boy!]

Thanks for that. I did a bit of investigating on the net and found out that it's not usually the crank position sensor. The crank position sensor only knows when the piston is at TDC but can't tell whether its on a compression stroke or exhaust stroke. It works in conjunction with the cam position sensor to be able to tell the difference. I bought a used one of Audibits2 on E-Bay and hey presto, it started first time!! So much for the AA diagnosis........
Needless to say, the £20 plus £3 postage worked out a lot cheaper than the new sensor i got first off. Lesson learned, do some investigating first before laying out cash and before believing the AA guys. I also wanted to say thanks to the guys who run the forum here and those who have replied to my thread. The Audi has been saved from the scrapyard, hurrah!!