Hi guy's! New to the forum, need help Please.

[James-NZ]

Hi guy's, my name is James and I am from New Zealand. I was looking forward to joining the Audi forums and share adventures with you all, unfortunately that has been curbed by a small problem, I own a 1996 A4 2.6 V6 and this morning it would not start.

Some background. I brought the car 3 days ago, I have fitted a new drivers door window regulator and a new Ignition switch to start correcting some of the more common problems A4's can suffer. So the car has been great for the last few days, I fitted the new ignition switch yesterday and it was working great.

So I noticed the car was rough running on cold start up, it was missing heavily and I figured it might be leads or something and I would take a look on the weekend, well the car must have had different thoughts on that and wants me to check it out now The miss would disappear after a few minutes, temp related? Then it ran great, no starting issues other than the miss first thing in the morning.

So can anyone help shed some light on what my problem might be?

Are we thinking vacuum? Or spark? Perhaps Fuel?

I think the rough running when cold is linked to today's problem, any thoughts are greatly appreciated.....

(p.s, great forum! I look forward to sharing my experiences here )

[pipe7284]

check your spark plugs and make sure they are gapped to were they are suppose to be

[James-NZ]

Thanks for the response. What gap are the plugs supposed to run? Do you think plugs will stop it from running? It will not fire at all.

I am at work but will be getting into it as soon as I am home in about 4 hours......

Any more suggestions are welcomed.

I will start with checking the fuses, then the plugs, then check for spark, also see if I can hear the fuel pump running, or I will remove the cover for the fuel pump and run a known temporary power supply to it just to be sure it working. Any thing else I should check on my way through?

[oldblu]

make sure to check the fuse real quick. Could be that simple. Especially since your ignition was switched.

[geeky]

are you cranking at all?

[James-NZ]

Yep, cranks over perfectly, just no fire.

Ran well after ignition was changed, started it maybe 10-15 times since then, no issues.

The ignition change might be linked but it doesn't seem to be logical if it worked yesterday it should work today.

I think it's a cold start issue.

[1fstavant]

coolant temp sensor will it start if u flood it with gas...im new to these so id take the advice of other that have been around longer but its a shot

[James-NZ]

I started by just cranking the engine normally5-6 times then tried pumping the gas a couple of time and as I continued to try I held the gas for longer to the point where I was trying to flood the engine by holding my foot WOT. Non of that made any difference.

The more I think about it the more I think fuel pump. Seems strangely similar to a DME relay I had fail in a 911 I used to own....

[James-NZ]

Quick update. Checked all fuses, one blown but it was the cig lighter (had wondered why that was no go) checked fuel pump, its running. Checked for spark, no spark. Plugs look good, definitely no spark.

Any ideas where should I start looking? Please

[TverRus69]

check the wiring. I have a 2.8 and it has a single coil pack unit as opposed to the 1.8's 4 separate ones. I don't know if yours is the same, but find it and see if its connected (seeing how you're not getting spark in any of the 6 cylinders). Test it.

[James-NZ]

Thanks for the help so far guy's! This really is a good place for all things Audi related!

My car has the 3 coil pack, all connections look good around that.

I have removed the cam positioning sensor and it does not look to be in the best shape, I will up load a photo soonish, I am about to do a search on testing the cam sensor with a multimeter so I can try to identify of this is the cause of my problem.

Will keep updating as things progress.

[James-NZ]

Ok, here are a couple of photo's of the cam sensor, it looks to be worn and the plug is broken away from the casing.

Is there anyone who can teach me how to test this? I get no readings from the terminals in the plug to any of the reader surfaces, is this normal? Any help is much appreciated.

[Mawhitey]

iirc the engine will run without a cam sender, the can one is for back up if the crank sensor fails. So my money will be on crank sender. Unless NZ cars have immobilisers like the UK?

[James-NZ]

In the interest of keeping this thread informative for future searches here is how to test a cam sensor

"It is most probably a Hall effect sensor, that means it contains embeded electronic parts. A multimeter alone will not allow you to test the sensor. You need a 12V power supply connected to 2 of the pins (cf car electrical diagram or check on the car where is the ground and where is the +12V), then you can check with a multimeter the voltage on the third pin wrt ground. This voltage must swing between #0V and #12V when you move a ferromagnetic part (eg a large bolt head) in front of the sensor. It should be #+12v when no part is present, and #0V when the part is close to the sensor... or the opposite" Credit to Eric for this, from another non Audi forum.

I will preform this test later today and I have also ordered a new sensor that should arrive today.

[James-NZ]

It's now running again, it was the "hall sensor". Fitted a new part. It now has a heavy miss all the time, possibly leads or plugs or both. Will be looking into that soon.

Thanks for the help guys.

[Siena]

Won't start with faulty / disconnected Hall sender, though it will continue running if it goes faulty / gets disconnected whilst running...

Glad you've at least got her started.

[James-NZ]

Won't start with faulty / disconnected Hall sender, though it will continue running if it goes faulty / gets disconnected whilst running...

Glad you've at least got her started.

Thanks brother.

I just took it for a drive to buy some new spark plugs and the misfire is gone, runs great now. Brought the new plugs anyway and will fit them tonight.

I like this little car, it's a lot of fun :)