2.0t coil conversion- no spark

[NikkiTurbo]

Hey y'all,

I recently picked up a 2001 Allroad with a misfire issue off Fb marketplace on the cheap. Previous owner had changed the coilpacks on the misfiring cylinders to no avail. So, not wanting to have to mess about with the ICM's or the coilpacks, knowing that there was a misfire issue, I just decided to order up a 2.0t conversion kit from ECS tuning and get rid of the headache all together. I followed the handy pdf instructions that came with the kit. I took out the old coil packs and ICM's and installed the new coil packs, the ICM delete cables, and the included coil pack extensions. A glorified spark plug change really, nothing to difficult. However, when I went to start my car excited to finally be free of this misfire, I was greeted with--- nothing. Just the sound of the engine turning over.

My first thought was that I fucked up, and either forgot to reconnect one of the cables or connected them in the wrong order. So I checked it over, made sure all of my cables were properly seated and that I hadn't accidently disconnected something while moving stuff around. Then I tried again with VCDS hooked up to try and see if it would throw any codes. Anything to give me an Idea of what was going on. Cleared it. Tried to crank the engine. no codes. Engine turns over, but won't start. I Googled to see if anyone else had dealt with a no start/no spark issue after installing their ICM delete, and nothing useful came up, so here I am.

I did check to verify there was no spark by pulling one of the coilpacks and spark plugs and holding it against the head to ground it while I had someone turn it over. No spark. So I finally checked the engine speed in VCDS to make sure it wasn't the crank sensor. Engine speed sensor: 120 m/sec. So now I'm stumped clearly I messed something up when installing the ICM delete kit, but try as I may, I can't find anything out of place. I did see a post that suggested the engine coolant sensor could be the issue, but usually those cause intermittent starting issues when the engine is warm, and wouldn't explain why I don't have any spark.

I'm going to go back through and uninstall the kit this weekend when I have time, and put back all the old coils and ICM's. Before I do that, I thought I would check and see if maybe anyone has any ideas that could maybe save me the headache of having to uninstall and troubleshoot more.

Here is the VCDS code list from before I cleared the codes:

Wednesday,26,October,2022,20:46:52:37711
VCDS Version: Release 22.9.0 (x64) Running on Windows 10 x64
www.Ross-Tech.com

Address 01: Engine
13 Faults Found:

16684 - Random/Multiple Cylinder Misfire Detected
P0300 - 35-00 -
16688 - Cylinder 4
P0304 - 35-00 - Misfire Detected
16690 - Cylinder 6
P0306 - 35-00 - Misfire Detected
16534 - Oxygen (Lambda) Sensor B2 S1
P0150 - 35-10 - Malfunction in Circuit - Intermittent
17965 - Charge Pressure Control
P1557 - 35-10 - Positive Deviation - Intermittent
18010 - Power Supply Terminal 30
P1602 - 35-10 - Voltage too Low - Intermittent
17536 - Fuel Trim; Bank 1 (Mult)
P1128 - 35-00 - System too Lean
17538 - Fuel Trim; Bank 2 (Mult)
P1130 - 35-00 - System too Lean
17746 - Camshaft Position Sensor (G40)
P1338 - 35-10 - Open or Short to Plus - Intermittent
16687 - Cylinder 3
P0303 - 35-00 - Misfire Detected
16514 - Oxygen (Lambda) Sensor B1 S1
P0130 - 35-10 - Malfunction in Circuit - Intermittent
17544 - Fuel Trim: Bank 1 (Add)
P1136 - 35-00 - System too Lean
17546 - Fuel Trim: Bank 2 (Add)
P1138 - 35-00 - System too Lean

[rj124104]

Didn't read any of this but the actual cables going to a 2.0 conversion are reversible for 034 style 2.0 conversion. You probably have something reversed on dead cylinders if this is the case. Same thing happened to me.

[NikkiTurbo]

Which connectors are reversible, and in what way?

The cables for the individual coilpacks are a 3 pin connector at the old plug connector and a 4 pin molded to fit shape at the tfsi coilpack. Similarly, the connectors to the ICM's are 3 pin to 4 pin connectors so not reversible either. I even swapped the 4 pin connector to each icm delete cable just in case I got those 2 flipped. Still the same result. All of the pins have designs that should make them non reversible in their plug orientation either. I tested it to see because that was something I was worried about. So I'm a little stumped here. Perhaps its a blown fuse? But as I recall, the ignition is on the same circuit as the fuel pump and ICU and VCDS is talking to my ECU so clearly its getting power. I would like to check and make sure, but my old Bentley manual got packed up in the move and I have never been able to find where it ended up.

[rj124104]

If you have this style https://www.urotuning.com/products/0...xoCwS4QAvD_BwE

The 3 pins can plug in upside down which reverses pin order.

[NikkiTurbo]

Thank you That looks like the same connector used by the ecs kit. I'll check and see if any of them are flipped when I get home. If they are flipped how do I know which way is the correct orientation, and which way is the plipped one?

[rj124104]

Pull the coil if it's clicking you're good, dead cylinder/no click... flip it.

[rj124104]

Thank you That looks like the same connector used by the ecs kit. I'll check and see if any of them are flipped when I get home. If they are flipped how do I know which way is the correct orientation, and which way is the plipped one?

let me know if that was it

[NikkiTurbo]

No dice unfortunately 😔

The plugs are all indexed on the inside so they only slide in in one orientation. I did find out that I had mistakenly hooked the cylinder 1 connector up to cylinder 2 and vice versa, but still no click on the plugs when I checked them after. Still no spark.

I'm just gonna uninstall everything and go back to the old coil packs when I have the time for it. Properly troubleshoot it instead of just throwing parts at the issue.

[rj124104]

I had a defective ICM cable at one point as well. Could be that... had to get a replacement. Did you switch them to see if those cylinders will work when swapped?

[NikkiTurbo]

I've tried swapping them and starting it, but I wasn't able to test for spark. I don't have easy access to a second set of hands outside of my daughter who is 6 lol so I've just been testing cylinder 5 as that's the easiest one to get to and I don't have a lot of time to work on the car while I'm working and taking care of her. I will have more time later this week to properly troubleshoot it. I'll pick up one of those in line spark testers and just set my phone up on a tripod to record it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[NikkiTurbo]

So I finally got a couple hours to wrench on the car tonight. Auto parts store was closed, so I just pulled the ECS coil conversion out and re-installed the old coilplugs and ICM's. I left in the new spark plugs, because the old set was horrendously over worn. The gaps were significantly higher than the .035 my feeler gauge went out to So with all the old components and a new set of spark plugs it started up no problem. There does still seem to be some misfire or stutter at low idle after warm up, but no codes in VCDS.

I took the car out for a spin and didn't have any perceptible misfire issues aside from the idle stutter. There does seem to be boost leak or possible N75 issue as the car still went back into limp mode for a charge pressure control code, but at least I can actually start and drive the car again . I guess it likely was just a defective ICM cable? I don't know for sure, because I didn't get a spark tester, but I'm having a hard time coming up with any other reason why it wouldn't start.