A6 3.2 FSI - engine drops RPM and about to stall ONLY when pulling away in 1st gear

[val13]

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post here and hoping for A6 3.2 FSI owners to shed some light on this issue.

I put in the 1st gear, I press the accelerator to pull away but the engine hesitates and begins to drop rpm to the point where I have to rev it to keep it alive. Sometimes this works but most of the times it stalls or I shut it off myself as I can't stand it choking like that. I then leave it for 3-4 min, start the engine and the problem goes away. This happens randomly, about twice a month so I can't really identify a pattern. What I know, it would only happen after at least 20 to 30min of driving and at least 10 minutes of that being slow moving traffic like 1st to 2nd gear, then stop and again in 1st and 2nd kind of driving, imagine you catch the red light 5 times kind of thing.

I will briefly describe the scenario when this happened last time:
- motorway driving for about 10 min
- got into town so 15-20 more minutes of slow driving 1st - 2nd gear low rev driving
- then I pulled up in a car park, shut the engine off
- 10 min later got back to the car, start the engine perfectly, idle is as usual no issues there, I put in the 1st, I slowly pull away for 5 seconds then the engine acts as described above

I emphasise, it only starts playing up in the 1st gear when I try to pull away from a complete stop and engine is warmed up. Never happened in 2nd gear, never when engine was cold and never during cruising so it seems to be a low rev issue? Never noticed strange behaviour at higher revs (or gears) and the engine is otherwise amazing.

I'm sure some of you may have experienced (or heard) this so if you can shed some light that would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Val

[apole]

Hi,

Not had this myself but would suggest your first step should be to get a code scan in vcds.

Could be any number of things so a scan is the best place to start.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Andy

[MarkTM]

^^^^As the man said, don't have a petrol one so can't comment except to say it sounds like a fuelling/flooding issue to me...didn't know cars still did that

[daveplyjeep]

Hi Val

Is the engine at running temp and will it rise in traffic. and are you loosing water.

Dave

[val13]

Hi Dave,

The engine is running at normal temperature, I didn't notice anything unusual in that respect, I don't think I'm loosing water but I will check though.
On the Audi TT UK forum forum they were talking about coil packs as possibility but the guy having the problem didn't give an update later.
I will definitely have it scanned to start with but still if someone ever ran into this feel free to share some info.

Thanks

[daveplyjeep]

Hi.
Chech with Audi and see if you have a recall for coil packs.

[Guest 2]

Hi.
Chech with Audi and see if you have a recall for coil packs.

was just about to write that!

customer service - 0800 699 888

or ask your local dealer

[val13]

I'm the 3rd owner and the car is out of warranty (05 reg), are they still responsible for fixing the coil packs? (providing there's an issue with them)
could be the previous owner (a lady) never bothered to check this, I will go through servicing invoices and perhaps I can figure this out.
thanks for the input so far guys
still hoping someone knows about this specific problem and I can pin it down

[Guest 2]

Warranty status or ownership/service history doesn't matter.


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[val13]

To Dave (I'm new and can't send pm yet) and everyone else,

I haven't had time to go and have it scanned for errors. I guess I'm beginning to get used to living with the problem as it only occurs 2-3 times a month and I was given a tip by a mechanic who owned quite a few Audis. He said this is very common with Audi engines and a quick "fix" when the problem occurs is to press gently on the accelerator. I have tested it while static and idling and found that if I press fast and hard I notice a sound just like a swoosh the millisecond before the revs go up whereas if I press slowly it revs up without the odd sound and it keeps the problem at bay. However as I said before the shaking and stalling symptoms are very sporadic so I wouldn't have to do this often. Really weird I know an my feeling is that this is linked to pressure, some sensor misbehaving or air flow...must be something like that.
Nevertheless I aim to have this investigated soon as it has now sparked my curiosity big time.
Once I have news I will update the thread.
Val

PS: I have gone through previous invoices and the car has attended the coil pack recall 2 years ago which kind of rules them out...