A4 TDi Injector Woes Possibly.

[andyr_rr]

Our 2001 130BHP A4 TDI has just clicked past 100,000miles and I took it to the garage (non-VAG specialist) that I've used for years for almost all of our cars of all makes. This guy is no specialist but is used by the local Audi dealers so is not a numpty either.
I'd thought it might be a pricey visit as a service was due plus engine mounting was suspected to be duff (bang from the engine/gearbox area when sharply coming off the accelerator) but when the 'hunting' on idle was investigated I was told that at that mileage and that engine, the standard Audi policy would be to replace all the injectors : costing £1200+ for parts alone - gulp !
Garage owner is investigating this, with the possibility of testing them or sourcing alternatives but I'm afraid that there is no way that we can face that cost along with imminent timing belt etc for a car only worth maybe £6000 or so ?
Searched the net when I got home last night and the name of Kermatdi came up with their Bosio injectors but I'm wary of ordering a set of their injectors without any further knowledge of their products.
Is that US company a good source of alternative injectors or are there other sources or other actions I might take to deal with this issue ?
Obviously there are the options of s/h or Ebay for much cheaper parts but whilst initially that would save a lot of money the question of the longevity of such parts is a bit of an unknown to me - have we just been a bit unlucky with our vehicle as it doesn't seem to me to be all that widely known a 'fault'.

Thanks in advance for any help for my first posting here.

[ronmcintosh]

Hi There

I cant confess to being an expert on diesel injectors, but i would be very surprised if there was a major issue with those. It is a very rare thing to see any mention of faulty injectors on the site and i would not think that all injectors would ever need replaced all in one go.

On the turbo diesels 100k is not considered to be high mileage and the car is not old either.

first thing:

1. Has the car flashed any engine management lights
2. Has the car had the fault codes checked on Vag com or similar, there is a good chance this would show if there was a fault and exactly what that fault was.

You say it hunts round at idle, is it driving ok apart from that.

There are a lot of things that can go wrong with these, but more often than not the problems are never that serious.

It should not be expensive to get the fault codes read (£30/40 quid ish at an independent garage)

What ever you do don't let someone start siphoning your wallet of cash until you know exactly what is wrong.

I am fairly sure for example (some of the other guys might contradict me) that injectors are never as a matter of course replaced at 100k,

Be slightly wary of what the local garage is telling you if that is the case.

Let us know how you get on

Ron

[andyr_rr]

I'm arranging for the Audi Tech bloke to take a look at the car early next week however ...
I gave the car a real hard blast on DC roads last night, taking it up to the redline a few times, initially with piles of smoke out of the back on hard throttle but latterly it cleaned up a lot and last night after it had probably just about cooled totally I started it up and it idled pretty well so I may, just may, have cleared the issue. Fingers crossed.

[Isoproturon]

Sounds like an air leak on the intake side, or a MAF problem.

Where are you based?

[andyr_rr]

I'm based near Edinburgh - Audi guy on the West side of the city, in Sighthill Industrial Estate I think, is being booked for examining the car : I am hoping that he will be able to spot any issues.

[ronmcintosh]

Hi There

If a blast like that appeared to help it, then i am guessing the motor does not have anything to major wrong with it.

It might be an idea before it goes in to try some injector cleaner at a fairly strong solution just to see if they are clogged. Failing that i have heard some guys saying that 10K boost (available from Halfords), sprayed in after the Maf can give good results when cleaning out deposits.

If you dont get any major joy with your guy give me a shout i have access to a VAG reader to check codes and am just outside Edinburgh.

Who is it you are taking the car to ?

Ron

[andyr_rr]

I honestly don't know the name of the guy who will be testing the car : I believe that the main dealer, that is near to my mechanic, uses him but we are bypassing Audi and going direct to him.
I'll find out tonight whether my heavy right foot last night helped the cause or not !

[andyr_rr]

Slight update to this : ca is still idling poorly so a friend in the trade spoke to a garage he knows of and they offered to plug my car into their diagnostics to see what the problem was and at no cost. Went today and the only fault recorded was an engine mount solenoid : we are not sure if this will impact the idle issue or not so they have offered to get the car to their Audi tech bloke (they themselves are veri Audi experienced but not so much with cars of my age) to see if we can determine the cause.

[andyr_rr]

Car got plugged in to diags on Tues - only thing it flagged was engine mount solenoid which we don't believe at all related to the idle issue as I am pretty certain that the mount is knacked so that no doubt is just related to that issue.
Garage then tested the injectors and 3 of 4 are below the correct (flow rate ?) with 1 just below and 2 significantly below (into negative values whatever that means)
So the end result is that replacement of the set of injectors is looking more like the only real way to resolve the issue, the only very slight hope is that the garage put injector cleaner in the tank in the hope that the problem is just some dirt and the cleaner will cledeal with that.
Crossed fingers but I am not holding out much hope TBH.