Audi 80 2.0L ABK engine juddering/misfire

[johnhh]

Hi all,
I too had the relay 30 issue and eventually got round to buying a new one and getting the very kind gentleman at Continental Car Services here in Auckland to fit it for me.

$35 for the relay and no charge for fitting. I must say I was very impressed with the professional manner and service I got from everyone at Continental Cars – I can’t sing their praises enough and if I ever buy a new Audi that’s where I’ll be buying it from.

Anyway the car ran perfectly from the moment the new relay was fitted and there has been no occurrence of that annoying rough performance since.

I have since done a little research as I was interested to see what ‘Relay 30’ did and how it could affect the performance so much. Looking at a wiring diagram I obtained, it’s listed as ‘Relief Relay for X Contact’ (J59 on page 45/8) and according to Google, its function is to shut off all un-necessary electrics whilst the starter motor is cranking the engine. You know the sort of thing, when you start the engine the radio momentarily turns off. Looking at my old relay, the dry joints, and yes there where 2 lovely dry joints, where in the main solenoid circuit and the main switching circuit. So I guess the thing would have been chattering and sending a massive amount of noise around what should be DC circuits. I couldn’t quite see if the ECU was driven from this circuit but if it was it would be like powering the device from AC current rather than DC.

Perhaps someone has a list of all the circuits that this relay controls.

Well done forum – keep up the good work….
Johnhh
PS. Anyone know anything about rumbling noises from gearboxes?

[niall4313]

Dont want to seem ungrateful here but this thread seems to have gone a little off the point the issue with relay 30 is already well and truly covered here and elsewhere on the forum without reverting back to it. Still have the same problem with rough running and non starting when hot as i had the first time i posted here over a year ago, diagnostics have shown no faults relay 30 has been replaced, along with every other item i can think of from distributor to afm to temp sensor, ecu, etc etc.. are there any new suggestions or observations that anyone can make to try and solve this? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[johnhh]

Sorry to hear you’re still having troubles with your car. I posted my message because this forum helped me solve my issue and I wanted to leave some feedback to the rest of the useful contributors. I have only owned this car for less than 6 months so haven’t been looking for fix’s for as long as you have. Good luck with resolving your problems.
Once again, thanks VWAudi Forum, couldn’t have fixed it without you.
Regards
Johnhh

[Sharpwit]

I have something similar with a '93 Avant's 2.6L ABC engine : juddering and far from its characteristic smooth-surge acceleration -- very unhappy under any kind of load, even just a bit of a slope, particularly with long journeys...

Is the 2.6L a very different car from the 2.0L mostly being discussed here or am I (in the first instance) looking for the same Relay then?

Has anybody had -- and fixed -- this problem on a 2.6?

Thanks


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John

[scotty33]

Hi

I don't think the v6 has the same relay.
I' ve heard of a few v6 that had problems with the ignition coil packs, this is just a guess, I suggest you read the fault codes, see if anything shows up? see link:

http://www.12v.org/maintenance/dtc.php?mil=no

[Sharpwit]

Scotty

Thanks for that. And though it doesn't give me the quick and easy, surefire definitive answer we're all obviously after -- but if there isn't one, there simply isn't one -- even if it doesn't do that, you've nonetheless saved me an embarassing search beneath the steering column for a relay that's not there under a fascia I can't yet work out how to remove anyway, so that's good, I guess...

Short of a 12v owner out there who's had and FIXED this problem then, I'm going to drop her into the garage I think and see what they reckon...

Thanks again though. Yes.



--
John

[Yellow Peril]

I know this is an old thread but just want to say a massive thanks to SteveInDaBury . I had the same problem as everyone else with my 1995 Audi Coupe 2.0L 8v and after checking relay 30, I had 3 dry joints. I soldered them back up, took the car for a test and now it is running very smooth with no misfire or judder when coming on and off the gas . I use my Audi Coupe for a 100 mile commute to work every day and this problem which has been going on for months has really been annoying me to the point where I was just tempted to scrap the car. Anyhow, 15 mins with the soldering iron and no money spent, the old girl has been saved from visiting the big scrapyard in the sky and should hopefully give me another 100,000 miles of Audi motoring.

Thanks all and especially SteveInDaBury!

Adam

[davemotion]

Relay 30 dry joint. Car fixed. I have a convertible Audi 2.0E B4. I couldn't put the roof down because the embarrassment of the juddering on a cool car...

Thanks to SteveInDaBury

[wilfcountydurha]

Hi, I have a 1994 Audi 80, had same problem as everyone on this link, I tryed new spark plugs, air filter, fuel filter, misfire seemed better for awhile. But then got worse, checked fuel pump filter for blockage, no problems there. Tryed changing relay 30 after seeing this link, still misfire, changed plug leads and dissy cap, miss fire still there but not as bad. I noticed that when ever i fiddled under dash near relay 30 misfire would get better or worse , two weeks ago I took every relay out of car one by one, cleaned the spade connectors with rough sandpaper, sprayed wd40 into all the plugs where relays go, misfire gone, car has ran fine since then, so before you spend any money please try this on your audi