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Hi all, another newbie here:- if this has already been threaded up then I apologise, but i have been searching for answers on the net for the past 8 hours with no joy so would be very grateful for some help:
My 1996 Audi A4 started losing power on a long run, and died after some 30 miles. I tried and tried to start it but to no avail. After over an hour, after some nagging from my wonderful girlf I gave it another go and.. hey presto it ran after I had bled the injectors and wiggled the wiring to the injector pump and took out the plunger in the stop solenoid (though it would not start when I had first done all this). Well, it ran for about 100 yards. Then stopped, never to go again...
The run up to this perhaps is that she has been smoking heavily when revved hard (car not girlfriend) when stationary. She splutters, gives off a lot of black smoke, a lot of carbon comes out of the exhaust and she often dies, but always starts again. But she always seemed to run ok (fairly normal smoke) at reasonable revs.
She's not using any oil, never has. She normally starts fine whether hot or cold. The glow plug sign comes on - indeed all the dash lights come on as normal and go off as they should. Sometimes there has been s a 3 beep series audible when I start her, but not always.
I have run her on a dual fuel system for about 6 months now - start up on Diesel then run on pure filtered waste veggy oil which is pre-heated by a good heat exchanger before going to the injector pump via a seperate veggy oil (heated) filter unit. The injector pump is a Bosch and they are usually very good with biofuels, however I have not been adding Turpentine as I normally would to break down any animal fat residues in the frying oil so I could to some extent expect the injector pump to go. But I would not necessarily expect loads of carbon coming out if that were on the cards, nor would I expect a broken pump to suddenly run again and then stop working again.
The central locking gave up bit by bit the past year, and it seemed to get worse when the weather was hot lest there be any electrical connection (haha).
I have tried connecting a good fairly high pressure lift pump into the fuel line just before the injector, but she still won't start, so it's not the vane pump in the injector as has been suggested on other sites.
There is a certain amount of black engine looking oil splattered around the turbo but I can't see where its coming from, it's been there some time and no more is coming out.
I have had the ECU out of the car today and can't see any 'dry' solder joints on it, though there was a load of oil in the little pipe that goes into a black plastic box on the ECU circuit board (not sure what that does or what that component is called... anyone?).
Normally I would suspect the injector pump as I say, but the fact that the car re-started that once leaves me baffled.
Something I don't understand is what the wires leading into the black plastic cover on the side of the injector pump do exactly - I tried to get the cover off but it only comes so far as it is obviously connected to something inside the injector pump and I didn't want to break anything by pulling too hard.
What I don't want to do is buy another ECU if it's the injector pump that's gone or vice versa: The starter turns her over good and fast, there are no strange sounds in the engine, the battery is fine.
There is no fuel appearing at all at the injectors when I crack them open during cranking. Could this be an immobiliser or other ECU issue? I'm not sure how they work...
Is there another ECM that could affect the injector pump (stop it from pumping) other than the main one under the corner of the windscreen?
Any thoughts or suggestions as to how to get the car running would be really appreciated, it has always been ultra reliable until now... desperate groans...banging head against wall...
I should add:
1) I now know that the little black box is the MAP sensor. Not sure how I'm going to clean it out - it's full of sticky black oil and the only hole is a 2mm internal diameter pipe going to it. But if this sensor is gunged up does that mean the injector pump would not inject at all?
2) I am feeding fresh Diesel in from a glass jar, through a brand new lift pump into the injector so the problem isn't filters.
3) People have suggested that it may be due to a pipe leaking somewhere fooling the ECU, but would any leaking pipes cause a total lack of injection, or would the car just run roughly because of it?
Thanks for any help, Jules
My 1996 Audi A4 started losing power on a long run, and died after some 30 miles. I tried and tried to start it but to no avail. After over an hour, after some nagging from my wonderful girlf I gave it another go and.. hey presto it ran after I had bled the injectors and wiggled the wiring to the injector pump and took out the plunger in the stop solenoid (though it would not start when I had first done all this). Well, it ran for about 100 yards. Then stopped, never to go again...
The run up to this perhaps is that she has been smoking heavily when revved hard (car not girlfriend) when stationary. She splutters, gives off a lot of black smoke, a lot of carbon comes out of the exhaust and she often dies, but always starts again. But she always seemed to run ok (fairly normal smoke) at reasonable revs.
She's not using any oil, never has. She normally starts fine whether hot or cold. The glow plug sign comes on - indeed all the dash lights come on as normal and go off as they should. Sometimes there has been s a 3 beep series audible when I start her, but not always.
I have run her on a dual fuel system for about 6 months now - start up on Diesel then run on pure filtered waste veggy oil which is pre-heated by a good heat exchanger before going to the injector pump via a seperate veggy oil (heated) filter unit. The injector pump is a Bosch and they are usually very good with biofuels, however I have not been adding Turpentine as I normally would to break down any animal fat residues in the frying oil so I could to some extent expect the injector pump to go. But I would not necessarily expect loads of carbon coming out if that were on the cards, nor would I expect a broken pump to suddenly run again and then stop working again.
The central locking gave up bit by bit the past year, and it seemed to get worse when the weather was hot lest there be any electrical connection (haha).
I have tried connecting a good fairly high pressure lift pump into the fuel line just before the injector, but she still won't start, so it's not the vane pump in the injector as has been suggested on other sites.
There is a certain amount of black engine looking oil splattered around the turbo but I can't see where its coming from, it's been there some time and no more is coming out.
I have had the ECU out of the car today and can't see any 'dry' solder joints on it, though there was a load of oil in the little pipe that goes into a black plastic box on the ECU circuit board (not sure what that does or what that component is called... anyone?).
Normally I would suspect the injector pump as I say, but the fact that the car re-started that once leaves me baffled.
Something I don't understand is what the wires leading into the black plastic cover on the side of the injector pump do exactly - I tried to get the cover off but it only comes so far as it is obviously connected to something inside the injector pump and I didn't want to break anything by pulling too hard.
What I don't want to do is buy another ECU if it's the injector pump that's gone or vice versa: The starter turns her over good and fast, there are no strange sounds in the engine, the battery is fine.
There is no fuel appearing at all at the injectors when I crack them open during cranking. Could this be an immobiliser or other ECU issue? I'm not sure how they work...
Is there another ECM that could affect the injector pump (stop it from pumping) other than the main one under the corner of the windscreen?
Any thoughts or suggestions as to how to get the car running would be really appreciated, it has always been ultra reliable until now... desperate groans...banging head against wall...
I should add:
1) I now know that the little black box is the MAP sensor. Not sure how I'm going to clean it out - it's full of sticky black oil and the only hole is a 2mm internal diameter pipe going to it. But if this sensor is gunged up does that mean the injector pump would not inject at all?
2) I am feeding fresh Diesel in from a glass jar, through a brand new lift pump into the injector so the problem isn't filters.
3) People have suggested that it may be due to a pipe leaking somewhere fooling the ECU, but would any leaking pipes cause a total lack of injection, or would the car just run roughly because of it?
Thanks for any help, Jules
