Check Engine Light

[A4Shizl]

Ok... here’s the deal..

I was driving in to work this morning and I went to change lanes. As I accelerated, my car sputtered twice and then responded. At this time, I noticed my check engine light come on. After a few seconds, it went off. This happened two more times before I got to my office and parked.


I turned the engine off and it started fine. I also reved the engine with no abnormalities..

Any Ideas?

[fongaroos]

sometimes when i push the engine REALLY HARD the red battery light comes on...

i looked in the manual and it says its the distributor or sometihng like that...

"power generator"?

someting like that...

i forget it..
it flashes on for like a second then it goes away...

its weird...

[bbaudi382]

the batterly light goes on when you run out of gas...

maybe it has something to do with fuel delivery

[Imperial]

Check Engine Light on and then off? Hmmm. Do you know anyone with a VAG-Com? They can check it and see if yuo threw any codes...

[A4Shizl]

just came from lunch... It may be the coil packs. I'm headed over to a buddy of mines tomarrow to replace them. And Yes.. I am out of warranty.....

[fongaroos]

hw do you know if coil packs are bad?

i know that when i changed my plugs... the plug closest to the firewall was significantly more oxidized or "burnt out" compared to the other 3...

how do i know if one is not functioning correctly?

[Imperial]

I was under the impression that the car would go into limp-mode if one of your coilpacks went bad.

[CyberPMG]

If an ignition coil went, you would notice a serious power loss (25% power reduction from only having 3 out of 4 cylinders operating). The car will behave like a bucking bronco. For owners of the 1.8T, stop immediately and get it flat-bedded ASAP. For owners of the 3.0, you don't have that great a power loss (operating on 5 cylinders) and could possibly drive it to a dealer for a short distance.

How do I know? 'Cause I had 2 coils fail on me (almost a year apart). I've had all of them replaced from the recall (as well as replace both catalytic converters & O2 sensors). It's been fine ever since.

[A4Shizl]

Big thanks to dave of eurocode tunning... he vaged my car and identified the bad coil pack.... and replaced it for a minimal charge...

good looking out dave...