Power Loss in wet weather!

:aargh4:Dearest fellow A4 Owners,

I have a 2002 A4 Avant 130 BHP Sport which is driving me nuts in wet weather!! Two other users on here 'Michaelbrad' & 'TimS' have posted identical problem.....which is.

In wet weather ONLY after a gear change there is no power for a few seconds then it kicks in again and car runs perfectly. This also happens after I wash the car indicating that damp is getting in somewhere. When its good weather the car runs like a dream with great MPG.

Has anyone else had this problem & been able to sort it out???? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise on the next wet day I will be seen heading towards the nearest CLIFF!!!:aargh4:

hello. i recently had the same problem on my 1.9 tdi 130. it took me ages locate but finally found it.if you look under your bonnet on the left hand side, under the air intake leading to the air filter box you will find a small tube probably 8-10mm in size. this tube should be connected to a small plastic cylinder valve (half black and half white) there should be an inlet and outlet on either end. it seems one of the tubes has disconnected possibly when you changed the air filter. reconnect the tube and all should be good hopefully.

mine used to give probs in the rain and when washed... the damn ******** couldnt work it out and it was simple as a tube disconnected

im not a mechanic but ive learned a few things since owning my audi

Thanks for your response, but unfortunately everything in the area you talk about looks intact! Air Filter looks worn out however, so I'll change this anyway even though I don't really think that it is causing the problem.
If you have any other ideas fire them on here! :confused:

Hi there, I'm in Cork and have the same problem!! In heavy rain, power gone!!

Did you get your car sorted?? My mechanic says a friend of his recommended wrapping some valve behind the right hand headlight in a plastic bag! :)

Thanks in advance,

There are a couple of connections where you mention and one controls the EGR valve operation. I checked mine and though they were ok, I addedd some dialectric silicon grease to the connection to prevent water ingress. You can get this from maplins. I've used it on many other connectors like the maf.

Thanks Marco, I'll give this a go and let you know if it sorts it out...

Did anybody find a solution to this problem?

I'm experiencing exactly the same thing with my A4. Cuts out when moving from 1st to 2nd, within a few minutes of starting from cold. Then it goes away. This only happens in damp condition because when we had a dry spell a few weeks back it stopped happening.

rrrrrggghhh mine does this too 1.9tdi 130 also occasionaly starts then cuts out and will not start for ages. runs poor seems to have lost a little power, also on start up when cold really smokes

Same here, used to happen when raining, but it is happening all the time now, cleaned all the electrical connections with switch cleaner and WD40, not the usual Air Mass sensor connector as is talked about in a lot of threads, trying to read the fault codes at the minute, downloaded the VCDS lite from Ross tech but cant seem to get it to talk to the car with the lead I have. Car drives fine above 2000rpm though, so I suspect it is not the Air Flow Meter. At the minute I am suspecting the vacuum sensors/valves behind the right head light. All pipework seems good,:aargh4:

Disconnected the Air Mass Meter as suggested on other posts and went for a drive, instant power on take off and between gears, but no top end as expected. I replaced an Air Mass Meter before but the symptom was no top end at all. Plugged the Air Mass Meter back in and poor acceleration and a lag of about two seconds between gear changes.

New Air Mass Meter in the morning me thinks...

Replaced the Air Mass Meter, went for a drive and car did not pull below 2400rpm, better but did not seem to fix. Disconnected the battery for a half hour. Went for a drive the next morning, brand new, pulls all the way from 1400 rpm. So seems like the AMM did the job.

Has anybody found a definitive answer to the problem in the original post? There must be something somewhere that is getting wet, and surely there can't be too many things that would affect the engine like this. I'm having exactly the same problem, and theres obviously a few of us.

Its so obviously caused by something getting wet that I think we can rule out dodgy air mass meter etc., it has to be a connection somewhere that is getting a soaking during a wash or heavy rain, there cant be that many possibilities. Do any of the very knowledgable folk on here have any pics/diagrams of connection locations etc??

I used to get this all the time too, with my 1.9tdi 130 sport. Had the AMM replaced at Audi just after I got the car, but it never really cured the issue. However, on Tuesday as I was returning to work in the north east, I got caught in all the flooding and had to drive through some pretty deep water. I got to within 3 miles of work (had driven down from Ayrshire), and the car finally spluttered to a halt after threatening to do it after the first couple of deep water incidents. I tried re-starting. The engine would catch, run for 5 sec's then die. Have spent most of today investigating. Thought I'd tracked it down to the fuel filter - people with more experience than me recommended changing it - did that, not much better. There are tiny metal 'filings' in the fuel that we drained from the old filter. Suspect this may be the fuel pump and I'm not relishing the prospect of changing it. Or the cost.
However, during the diagnosis today, I had a look at the intercooler, which is very vulnerable to the elements. It was covered in all kinds of oily crud... Looking inside the feed pipe, there are traces of oil (I also noticed this pipe wasn't properly located at the joint - has this been another factor?). Putting 2 and 2 together, and probably getting 5, I'm thinking the intercooler may be damaged/holed (hence oil getting out) and this is somehow affecting the power when it's wet. Anyway, I'll be stripping off the lower covers and checking the bottom area of the engine for loose sensors/hoses, etc. If I can get the intercooler out I'll get it cleaned up and inspected by pressure testing it. I'm also getting a diagnostic check done (a proper one; my £12 bluetooth OBD2 dongle off EBay doesn't seem to tell me much of anything...) and again I'll update the forum.
Just to clarify: my engine starts and runs for approx. 5 sec's, then coughs to a halt - this after driving through some pretty deep water. It has always had a power issue in severe wet weather.