P2006/P2007 Solenoid Testing

[ccastane10]

Hey everyone!

So I have these two codes. Reading many other forums, I came to the conclusion that it’s probably my solenoids under the intake manifold. I have the whole intake apart (thanks to the How To Carbon Clean found in this Forum).

Turns out there are two solenoids. One is located on the actual intake manifold and the other sits on the engine next to the right side fuel rail. Each part costs about 140ish at my local dealer. But I’m wondering if there is any way I can test them using like a multimeter or some other way so maybe I don’t have to buy two and can narrow it down to one not working.

Vehicle is a 2012 Audi S5 4.2 V8 around 104k miles.

Thanks in advance!

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[Darel]

I went through this, painfully. The OEM one under the fuel rail failed open, pulling the flaps closed all the time. I replaced it with a cheapie from Amazon which worked until the first time the engine reached operating temperature, then died. So I had to pull the manifold again. The OEM unit is made by Pierburg. If you go buy a Pierburg one online it's about $50 instead of $150 for exactly the same part from the dealer.

You can test these, kinda. For the first type of failure I had, the solenoid should be NC - normally closed (If I rememeber correctly). There are two modes of failure, both if which I've had - mechanically and electrically. The first one failed mechanically - meaning, if I triggered the solenoid, I could hear the coil clicking, indicating it was working. But there was no change in the "state" of the unit - you could still blow/suck from one port through the other. Or you couldn't suck at all, meaning it failed closed. They can fail either way. You have to trigger the solenoid with a 12v source and blow or suck through one port. You should:

1. when 12v is applied, you should hear a click. This means the coil is working.

2. There should be a change of state in the solenoid - in other words, you should be able to suck or blow through the solenoid with NO RESISTANCE (I'll get to that in a minute) and then either apply / remove 12v and the sucking or blowing will stop. Or the other way around, depending on what's easier for you. If you get that change of state, it's mechanically OK.

On the no resistance thing - one of the ports bleeds off pressure to atmosphere when the solenoid is closed. This allows the flaps to bleed off vacuum and return to normal position. Otherwise it would always just hold vacuum and they'd never move. That's OK, though, because if you are sucking / blowing on this port, you'll feel resistance as the bleed port is very small and has a filter over it. If the solenoid is open between the ports there will be virtually no resistance.

If you have a Vag-Com, you can individually test each solenoid without having to take anything apart. This doesn't do anything for you if they failed mechanically, but most of the failures are of the coil (electrical) and it's a quick check that takes no time at all. Basically tab through the individual component test sequence (it tests a bunch of stuff in the engine for one minute at a time) and when it gets to that solenoid, you'll hear it clicking away from under the manifold. Or maybe you won't. Again, it might click, but still be bad as my first one was. But if it's running that test and you DON'T hear clicking then you immediately know where the problem is. I don't recall offhand how to navigate to that test sequence in VCDS but it's under "Engine". I'm not near my car or cable right now that I can get it to communicate and open that up but I think there's a box under "Engine" that's something like "Individual Tests" or something.

I had to replace the wiring connector on both of my solenoids too, they're available on eBay with a pigtail for something like $8. You could also use one to make a test rig if you're not comfortable with holding jumper wires down in there and sucking / blowing at the same time.

For my money replacing those solenoids with the Pierburg ones for $50 each should be done at every carbon clean, just like the oil filter housing o-rings. It's not worth new injectors at $1200 every time, but to me it's worth $100 to not have to pull the manifold again a week after you did a carbon clean (like I did).

One other thing I did was bought a super-cheap ass $35 smoke generator on Amazon and actually found a leak in one of those vacuum lines. It wasn't causing any issues other than I noticed while driving around, my flaps never got beyond 83-86%. Once I repaired the leak they got to full travel.

So you can basically rebuild your entire flap control system for the cost of one $150 OEM solenoid ($35 smoke generator + $50 Pierburg solenoid x2).

Good luck. This got way longer than I planned but I lived through this nightmare, of having to replace one injector and carbon clean, then having that solenoid fail 2 weeks later, then having the cheap-ass replacement solenoid fail basically as soon as I got the engine back together, so that was 3 manifold removals / front-end-in-service-positions within one month, so hopefully I can help someone else avoid having their car out of commission all summer the way mine was.

Oh yeah! My car spend so much time up on jackstands because of this, with the suspension at full droop, all the bushings in my control arms failed and I had to move up that project about a year before I'd planned, too. So there's that.

Good luck, I'm here if you have questions.

Darel

[Darel]

Also I should point out that P2006/7 is the solenoid under the manifold, not the one out front. So in your case it's definitely the one under the manifold but if you get the $50 Pierburgs just replace both, since you have them out. P2006-7 is the flaps in the lower intake manifold (and if you are getting both faults at the same time it's the solenoid), which are BOTH controlled together by the one solenoid under the manifold. The other solenoid out front is for the barrel-shaped UPPER intake manifold flaps, and would throw a different code. Both solenoids are the same part number.

[Darel]

Here's a couple links to the stuff I mention above, sorry I had some of the prices wrong. The Pierburg solenoid was $36 from FCPEuro, the smoke generator was $35 but you also need an $18 tip adapter to use it. There is one spot where the vac line runs behind the bracket that holds the runner actuator on the intake manifold and rubs on it. I never would have found the hole without the smoke gun.
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/aud...lve-037906283c
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[ieatshotslike50]

Also I should point out that P2006/7 is the solenoid under the manifold, not the one out front. So in your case it's definitely the one under the manifold but if you get the $50 Pierburgs just replace both, since you have them out. P2006-7 is the flaps in the lower intake manifold (and if you are getting both faults at the same time it's the solenoid), which are BOTH controlled together by the one solenoid under the manifold. The other solenoid out front is for the barrel-shaped UPPER intake manifold flaps, and would throw a different code. Both solenoids are the same part number.

I literally just got this code last night on my 09 s5. How hard it is to replace the solenoids?

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[Darel]

For P2006/7 it's a giant pain. You have to remove the intake manifold. Plan on doing a carbon clean and replacing the oil filter housing o-rings while you're in there. I'm sure someone else will chime in and tell you to replace all the injectors too. Personally, I'm OK with the $20 "while-I'm-in-theres" but not with $1200.

If you can do the work yourself this shouldn't cost you more than $150 if you do a carbon clean too. If you have to take it somewhere, you're probably looking at $1500. I've had my intake manifold off 3 times now (so I'm pretty good at it) but it's still about a 4 hour job for me, just to remove it.

[ccastane10]

Darel, thanks for the info man! So just an update, I put the engine back together last night with the Pierburgs part you told me about. I ordered them from Pelican Auto Parts, I believe they were located in California and I’m in Delaware but they got to me pretty quick. I ended up replacing both because Pelican had each selling for like $50 so it wasn’t bad. I fired the car up last night and cleared the codes with my cheap Bluetooth tool and I drove it to work this morning (about 1 hour commute) and codes didn’t come back. So success lol.

Ieatshotslike50,
Like Darel said it isn’t super bad but it does take time. This was my first time ever taking a manifold off and it was time consuming because I didn’t want to break anything. The one thing that I had trouble taking apart and putting back was the PVC screws behind the throttle body, there is like no space to reach back there. I had to buy a couple different size Torx20 tools to see which one fit best back there. Other than that, it’s doable. And like Darel said, if you take it to a shop it’s expensive. My shop here in Delaware quoted me around $800 not including the carbon cleaning. I spent around $120 on parts and tools. But the P2006/7 is due to the solenoid. Unfortunately it has to be taken off to replace.


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[Darel]

Awesome, glad I could help! I am sure this doesn't make you feel any better, but for anyone reading who is ONLY going to replace the solenoids and not do a carbon clean, replace the oil filter housing o-rings or do anything injector related, you do NOT have to remove those screws in the back of the manifold that mount the PCV separator. Once you get everything else off you can pick up on the front of the manifold leaving the PCV intact and there will be enough flex in the hoses. You are right, that is the worst part about the whole job. However, if you're going to do any of the other while-I'm-in-theres it needs to come all the way off. I only know this because my solenoid died about two weeks after I'd already replaced the #8 injector and done the carbon cleaning. $800 is actually a pretty good price to have someone else do it.

While I was in there I briefly considered extending that vacuum line for the solenoid under the manifold and mounting it somewhere out front (really, there is NO good reason for it to be there) but I didn't feel like having the car down for an extra week or two while I ordered parts and waited for them, only to have some crappy looking ziptied contraption in my engine bay. That's one of the biggest reasons my car spent so much time off the road this year - just waiting for parts. When i did my control arms, I ignorantly ordered M14 parts instead of the M12 I needed, and the 3 rounds of wrong parts that came in kept it off the road over a month.

[ieatshotslike50]

Awesome, glad I could help! I am sure this doesn't make you feel any better, but for anyone reading who is ONLY going to replace the solenoids and not do a carbon clean, replace the oil filter housing o-rings or do anything injector related, you do NOT have to remove those screws in the back of the manifold that mount the PCV separator. Once you get everything else off you can pick up on the front of the manifold leaving the PCV intact and there will be enough flex in the hoses. .

Sounds like I have to find some diagrams online how to do this. I reset the code and it stayed off for a week but it seems to come on when I do more city driving. Car is running great still.

How much time does it take to change this, one day project?

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[Darel]

It's going to be more than a day if you do the carbon clean and all, as suggested.

That may not be true depending on your workspace and all. Me, I depend on daylight. I also have 2 jobs and a family. So, My 2-3 day job might be just one long day for you.

[mac1142]

Also I should point out that P2006/7 is the solenoid under the manifold, not the one out front. So in your case it's definitely the one under the manifold but if you get the $50 Pierburgs just replace both, since you have them out. P2006-7 is the flaps in the lower intake manifold (and if you are getting both faults at the same time it's the solenoid), which are BOTH controlled together by the one solenoid under the manifold. The other solenoid out front is for the barrel-shaped UPPER intake manifold flaps, and would throw a different code. Both solenoids are the same part number.

I have a Audi A6 2010 3.0 with this issue. whats the part number and picture of part needed.