HI, I am not a mechanic nor am I at all familiar with what is what with cars, in fact you could call me a "oil change only" kind of guy, but I have a problem that has stumped 2 mechanics/engineers and I want to ask in the forum just in case anyone has had a similar experience.
Problem: For 6 months now, when I drive sometimes every now and then the engine seems to shudder and it feels a little like the car is being buffeted by high winds or maybe it feels like I’m dragging an anchor. I then feel a loss of power. But it'll still do 80 mph if on a motorway, so we’re talking maybe a 10%-15% reduction in performance. Usually around the 2-3000 revs. If I declutch into neutral however the revs are fine and will top end, but if I re-clutch in gear it's like it's dragging something. I pull over. I switch off engine and take out key. The problem is gone. The problem comes back a few weeks or days later.
Solution 1: I took the car first to a garage I know and trust, they run a computer diagnostic engine management check and (as sod's law says) the car runs perfectly and say that the car computer IS reporting a intermittent injector problem but when they inspect the injector it seems fine, and the injector failing would not really give the symptoms that I describe, they recommend I go to VW direct.
The errors they got:
18074 valve for pump injector cyl1 electrical problem in circuit p1666 intermittent
16685 cyl1 misfire detected po3ol intermittent
Solution 2: I then took the car (not to VW they are insane prices) to s VW specialist calles Audi VW servicing. He immediately tells me over the phone that this is a common problem and he'll check the computer because it's not the injector 1 he says; it's something else the old "key in and out" routine is a giveaway he says. Some other part ( I forget name) that is a common problem. In fact he prompted me and told me the key-in-and-out-will-fix thing before I mentioned it to him, so my trust that he knows his stuff is high. I take car to him. He spends half a day driving the car with a laptop checking injector 1 says it works fine. He says he can see it working fine. He says that the 2 error codes from previous check are still there though. But he says they don't explain the symptoms I describe. He says that I should drive to him when the next time it happens so he can check it OR he can replace injector 1, replace 2 other parts that give the key-in-and-out-fixes-it-routine all for a total of £900 and STILL he can't promise it'd fix it.
I am stumped, any ideas what I should do?
Could be the air mass sensor. (About £60ish from German and Swedish). Could be a split in the vacuum/boost hoese running from inlet to ecu and boost control solenoid. Could be Faulty solenoid. Could be sticking VNT mechanism within turbo. To check that locate the actuator (gold or silver coloured cannister on the side of the turbocharger). The rod end should travel around 15 - 20 mm towards the cannister when a fairly strong pressure is applied to it. If it is jerky or partially siezed or doesn't come to rest in the same spot every time, there's the problem.
Conan,
The fault P1666 you described I have seen before and is caused by poor electrical connection to the injector, recommend you replace the injector adapter harness 038971600.
Conan,
The fault P1666 you described I have seen before and is caused by poor electrical connection to the injector, recommend you replace the injector adapter harness 038971600.
that makes a ton of sense... examine the connections before replacing the harness though just in case it might just need cleaning? :wink:
thanks for all the help guys.. to that last comment, yeah the first garage cleaned all the injector thingies :-)
I've written everything you said down tho :-)
would be cool if you could borrow a known good harness from someone to rule that out... the quality of wires these days is pretty crap due to the high price of copper
ye its probably the injector loom,its inside the rocker cover though :wink: ive changed 2 and fixed them
Bert
While I was reading this I started thinking it's the injector harness and then I scroll down and see it's already been mentioned....so you've got one more vote for the injector harness :wink:
Thanks everyone - just want to CONFIRM you are right it's the "electrical wiring harness (injector adapter harness 038971600)" for the injector it's maybe £100(ish) to replace