Yesterday, our two-month-old A4 1.8T decided not to start. The AAA guy came, checked it out, couldn't start it, and towed it away to the dealer - it definately wasn't the battery before someone out there suggests it...<p>Symptoms: it turns over and over and over and over, without ever "catching" and starting the engine. It makes the same exact noise as when normally starting the car, except that usually after about a half a second or so, the car purrs to life.<p>Today the dealer calls up and says that it started up without a problem. Anyone have any ideas why this would happen? Has it happened to anyone else? <p>The car was fine the day before - I backed it out of the garage in the morning, then moved it back in later on, starting fine each time. No trouble until trying to get to work...<p>I'm a little baffled, so if anyone has any ideas or experience with this, please let me know...<p>Thanks,<p>Tom<br>

<br>I can sympathise but cannot help.<p>I usually insts quiet vigorously that a dealer keep the car until they can duplicate the problem.<br>

Did you say "towed" it away? From everything I've read, if your car is a Quattro, towing is not a good idea.<br>There have been prior posts here about various problems after a couple of quick starts and stops of the engine as you mention you did. I don't remember the details but I think the problems included hard starting, rough running, check engine lights, etc. <br>Did you ask the dealer if they checked for an error code? I would think the computer would have recorded the problem.<br>Good luck! These mysterious and non-duplicable problems can be frustrating. I've encountered my share of them in the last 11 months that I've owned an Audi.

I had a very similar problem. It was caused by only letting the car (cold) run a few seconds and then shutting it off. For some reason this causes a excess amount of gas to enter the combustion chamber (flooding) and hence the hard start problem. The car should start by holding the gas pedal to the floor when cranking the engine. ( I know this is not advisable with a fuel injected car) I always let the car run for a few minutes if I am just backing it out of the garage to wash it.<p>The reason the car started at the dealer is because the gas had probably dissipated enough by that time.<br>

Car was running completely fine, had a couple of mysterious no-starts, luckily it turned over after waiting a few minutes. Runs fine, dealer asked me if it was possible that I'd touched the accelerator on start up ( maybe ? ) , couldn't duplicate, no fault codes or anything else wrong found). Apparently that can really goof up the starting sequence ( ? ). I've since been more careful to not touch the gas on start up - problem hasn't happened since..

There are a lot of posts regarding similar problems in the archives with more detailed explainations of what causes the problem. in a nutshell, turning the car on and off a few times in succession (pulling out of garage and then back in later) can cause the car to flood.

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If you accurately described exactly what happened, chances are you flooded the engine. A couple of quick starts and stops will do this to any number of fuel injected cars. I first discovered this when I washed my wife's now-departed '95 Integra. Started it, backed it out, stopped it. Washed it. Re-started, pull into garage and stop. Next morning, no start. <p>It seems to take at least two or three quick start/stops to do this. Now, whenever I wash my car, I let it run for a minute or two each time I start it. No more problems.<p>Andy

This happened to me once, too. From what I can tell it only happens when the engine is cold. Once the engine is up to operating temperature you can start/stop the engine as quickly as you like (but I still let it idle for a few moments).<p>-Dave

You have to watch out for this especially in colder weather since the engine is started with an extra-rich mixture the colder it is. If I just start mine up cold one time and pull into the garage, on the next start it will run rough for a few seconds as it burns off the excess gas that poured into the cylinders.<p> Doug G