Electrical gremlin

[ciaranthemurph]

At the moment my aby coupe is in an Audi Specialist in Glasgow due to it needing to have a spark-plug helicoiled. I left the car in his hands as I was heading offshore to work and have been keeping up to date via phone calls. I phoned today and he said that the work had been done and he had taken it for a test drive to make sure everything was ok and he said that it was idling in traffic then cut out and wouldn't start again. I've not had any trouble since I got the car with it, so I'm not sure what this means. He hooked it up to the diagnostic equipment and is saying that the ecu isn't allowing him in to 'read' it, or to try and find out what the problem is. Does anyone know what might be causing this, and what's going to need to be done to fix it. The car has an immobiliser that was fitted years ago (1996 I think) but this hasn't given any trouble that I know of.

Sorry for the lack of details, but I am only going on what i have been able to find out over the phone. I'm calling up again later on today to see if he has found anything, but if anyone has an idea it would be most helpful.

Cheers in advance.

[ericd]

where did you take it (pm if you'd rather), confirm with him that it's vag-com (?) that he's using to talk to it, and what the comms error is that he's getting back (tmo/retry etc,etc)

[ciaranthemurph]

On a further note, can anyone recommend a suitable specialist in the Glasgow area? Or even further afield if possible. Cheers

[S2central.net]

Could be something stupid like a blown fuse for the ECU - there about five required for all functions. Maybe some other connectors have been disturbed / loosened during the work ?

If he can't get OBD comms up with his diag machine, then try blink codes !

Could also be something totally unrelated like IMMO or fuel pump / relay - certainly smells electrical to me given the rapid nature of the fault and that all was well beforehand...


Paul

[ericd]

PM Sent ,

[ciaranthemurph]

Cheers guys,

I'm armed with all sorts of questions for tomorrows installment of the saga. I can't imagine it being something serious, but it's annoying not knowing what is wrong (I'm sure everyone has been there, I know I have before!). If he can't fix it, it'll go somewhere else, simple as that.

The Audi main dealer just outside Glasgow were not even remotely interested in looking, which was fantastic, I almost got to the point on the phone of saying: 'Well I'll just go and give my cash to someone else, thanks for f*ck all!' The opening line of 'Well, we won't organise a recovery for a car older than 3 (might have been 4) years, and we probably won't be able to look at it until Wednesday (it was Thursday at the time of call) even if you do manage to get it to us.' to my enquiry about getting my car repaired is what almost prompted my outburst!

Are most main dealers this interested in the old cars?

[S2central.net]

Thats normal fair I'm afraid - your typical dealership is much happier dealing with the company car brigade where service windows are a license to print money... plus extras gleamed from callouts & recovery etc etc. That or if you are wedged up sufficiently to purchase a new(er) car from the dealer. After 5yrs or 50k miles they couldn't care less IMO. Now NOT all dealers are like this, but in general it is sadly accurate. You probably don't want your local dealer working on your S2 anyway unless the mechanic has been there long enough to have meaningful experience on them. There is precious little maintenance info on them in the dealers computerised system and I bet that I have more paper manuals for the Audi 80, Coupe & S2 than most dealerships - they aren't interested in looking after our prized old cars.

Check Fuses 13, 21, 24, 25, 27, 28 and 32 - feckin dealer should be able to do that !

[ciaranthemurph]

Thats normal fair I'm afraid - your typical dealership is much happier dealing with the company car brigade where service windows are a license to print money... plus extras gleamed from callouts & recovery etc etc. That or if you are wedged up sufficiently to purchase a new(er) car from the dealer. After 5yrs or 50k miles they couldn't care less IMO. Now NOT all dealers are like this, but in general it is sadly accurate. You probably don't want your local dealer working on your S2 anyway unless the mechanic has been there long enough to have meaningful experience on them. There is precious little maintenance info on them in the dealers computerised system and I bet that I have more paper manuals for the Audi 80, Coupe & S2 than most dealerships - they aren't interested in looking after our prized old cars.

Check Fuses 13, 21, 24, 25, 27, 28 and 32 - feckin dealer should be able to do that !

Cheers Paul, I've phoned him today to check the fuses you mentioned, so he is going to do that. I also found out from the previous owner (SR71) that the car has the MIL mod as from your website, so I have armed him with the address and he is going to have a look and see if he can find the fault. If not it will be going to a specialist as recommended by ericd, so hopefully she'll be mobile soon enough.