Cylinder 1 misfire, cylinder 1 disabled, smoke

[seangrimes590]

Car took a shit tonight.

Don't really know what's wrong with it yet, didn't have the tools with me to pull the plugs and look in the cylinder so had it towed to an Audi dealer.

Car was driving fine, strong actually with the cooler weather. Took it easy on the highway for about 10 miles on my way home from work, hit the gas a bit after a car moved out of my lane, though not very hard -- maybe 40% throttle. A few seconds after that I downshifted into 3rd while taking an offramp. Hit the gas a bit here too, but still only 30/40% throttle. About 2/3 seconds later I felt what I though was my clutch slipping, turns out it was one of my cylinders deciding it didn't want to do anymore work. Based on the codes I pulled it looked like it was misfiring for 6/7/8 seconds while I merrily went on my way with the engine light flashing (note this wasn't on purpose, I was turning and the steering wheel blocked my view of the gauge cluster). 9 seconds after the initial misfire the cylinder was disabled and the epc light came on; I said "oh shit". Around when the cylinder got disabled my car started letting out a smoke screen on the unlikely guy / lady behind me -- some grayish smoke, though it was dark and I only had a brief glance, not totally sure what the color was. It was smoking enough that it filled the cabin with smoke, you can see this towards the end of the video linked below.

It's possible this is simply a spark plug issue with running the NGK 6 heat range in cooler weather, though I don't think I would have seen the smoking that I did if it was that simple. Hopefully somebody can tell me that smoke always comes from a disabled cylinder, though I doubt anybody will have that kind of good news.

I didn't bother trying to turn the car on again after I killed the engine. I'm not really sure why, if the cylinder was screwed already this wouldn't have really done more damage, and if (fingers crossed) it's just a cold heat range plug issue, starting the engine wouldn't have done any damage anyway. Oh well, we'll see what happens.

With all the smoke in the cabin I prioritized getting my important shit out of the car, wasn't sure what was wrong, didn't need to lose anything else if my car decided it wanted to BBQ itself. Once I got around to popping the hood, 5 or so minutes after turning the engine off, a small amount of smoke came out but not a lot.

Promised video, not very exciting but shows how uneventful the lead-up to this was:
https://youtu.be/txrC1RokXms


Will update once I hear from Audi, don't know how soon they'll get to looking at the car, there service schedule is filled up tomorrow and Saturday according to their website.


Codes pulled from vagcom for those who are interested:
3 Faults Found:
4054 - Cylinder 1

P0301 00 [101] - Misfire Detected
Not Confirmed - Tested Since Memory Clear
Freeze Frame:

Fault Status: 00000001
Fault Priority: 2
Fault Frequency: 1
Mileage: 83431 km
Date: 2015.12.03
Time: 21:31:40

7960 - Cylinder Disabling P130A 00 [036] - -

Intermittent - Not Confirmed - Tested Since Memory Clear
Freeze Frame:

Fault Status: 00000001
Fault Priority: 2
Fault Frequency: 1
Mileage: 83431 km
Date: 2015.12.03
Time: 21:31:49

4051 - Random/Multiple Cylinder Misfire Detected P0300 00 [101] - -

Not Confirmed - Tested Since Memory Clear
Freeze Frame:

Fault Status: 00000001
Fault Priority: 2
Fault Frequency: 1
Mileage: 83431 km
Date: 2015.12.03
Time: 21:31:40
Readiness: 0010 0001

[richardm0025]

I would say fuel injector with the white smoke coming out the exhaust. But a good amount of smoke in the cabin? Hmmm.


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[OzeyeruZ]

Crap Brother!,

Keep us posted. Maybe stage 2 will be the furthest I venture out in terms of power for my A4 as of now until it will not be my DD any longer. Guess we will have to push back our meet up and comparison run even further. Good luck and hope its nothing serious!.

Oz

[seangrimes590]

I'm not sure what really constitutes a good amount of smoke and what doesn't, but there was definitely enough in the cabin that you can see it as hazy on the video once I stopped and the interior lights came on.

Oz, funny thing is my car has been running great the past couple weeks, I was about to send you a message to see about meeting up in the next couple weeks. Got a call from the dealer around 7:30 saying they'd start doing some diagnostics today which was a pleasant surprise; never had work done at this dealer and the work schedule was full, didn't really expect to hear anything from them. Will update when I hear back.

[poweredbyaudi7]

What year and 6MT or auto?

[o1turbo30v]

Cylinder disabling code usually means the fuel injector died.

[seangrimes590]

2012, 6MT.

[seangrimes590]

Cylinder disabling code usually means the fuel injector died.

Is it typical to see smoke with a dead fuel injector? I'm having trouble finding any posts outside of subaru forums that have misfires and smoke. Seen plenty of dead coil pack posts here and in the VW forums, but nobody is seeing smoke when that happens. Coil packs are pretty new as well, 5K miles, same with the plugs.

[STA4]

Once I was attempting to clean my intake using seafoam through one of the ports on the manifold. I was by myself and the plug I was using came loose, so there was a huge vacuum leak and then the engine tried to compensate (revs started climing) and it started to smoke in the engine compartment (as well as out the exhaust) before I could shut her down. I believe it the smoke in the engine compartment came from my leaky flex pipe. True story.

[itlnstallion818]

same thing happened on my '13 b8.5, car is dead in the water. having engine replaced-- i hope you dont need the same thing

[TCHUN003]

Any updates?

[hyperunion]

Is it typical to see smoke with a dead fuel injector? I'm having trouble finding any posts outside of subaru forums that have misfires and smoke. Seen plenty of dead coil pack posts here and in the VW forums, but nobody is seeing smoke when that happens. Coil packs are pretty new as well, 5K miles, same with the plugs.

Sorry to hear that man.... Hope its a minor fix and not engine failure,... I'll assume no warranty , especially with k04

[MartinX]

I was just getting my water pump replaced on 2013 Allroad last night, my fiend who is a technician for Audi in Chicago said to change spark plugs every 35K to avoid misfires, this could be related to your issues.

[ChornsYYC]

Any updates?

[OzeyeruZ]

Bump for updates! @seangrimes