INSOMNIAC

I have a 1997 Audi A4 1.8 Turbo Quattro with Automatic transmission. The car now has 163,100 miles.

To make a long story short, I installed a Neuspeed 1.0 bar chip to my A4 almost a year ago. The car ran very fast and strong for a while and then one day while trying to pass somebody on the highway the engine started hesitating to accelerate and got stuck at 3500 rpm. It wouldn't rev up no matter how hard I floored it. I backed out of the gas and floored it again and the car downshifted, revved all the way to redline but very slowly.

Since then, my car's performance is down by 50%, hesitates to accelerate, would rev over 3,500 rpm very slowly and hardly, and sometimes would not rev past 4,000 rpm unless I back out of gas and feed the gas slowly again. It's just a pain. The car is so slow. Especially from a dead stop, the car accelerates slower than a UPS truck.


I have posted 4 threads here regarding this problem and unfortunately couldn't solve it yet.

First I took it to Carlsen Audi at Palo Alto and they told me the MAF sensor was causing the problem. After $2,000 and replacing the MAF sensor and setting the codes, they told me the car was "running as a 1997 A4 with 151,000 miles (back then) is supposed to run". I took the car and the performance was the same. Just drasctically slow to what it used to be.

The Carlsen service also advised me to do a timing belt change and tune up. I didn't want to get smacked in the *** 2 times so I went out and bought all the parts and had a mechanic install them.

4 months ago I had the Water pump, Timing Belt Kit (upgraded version), Timing Belt tensioner, Valve cover gasket, Crankshaft seal, Camshaft seal, Thermostat, Spark Plugs, Fuel Filter, Oil Filter, Air Filter and Oil replaced by a mechanic.

The same problem was still there.

So I posted here again and this time most of the people here said the turbo was bad. So, I went back to the mechanic and had him check the inlet tubes and he told me there were metal shavings everywhere, intercooler inlet tube, intercooler, intercooler outlet tube, throttle body, etc. He told me these fine metal shavings might have worked their way all the way into the engine.

I posted a thread here asking for the Best Audi Mechanic Shop in the Bay Area and 5-6 people recommended one shop that I am not going to mention their name until I try to resolve the issue with them. The mechanic at this shop sounded like a cool guy and told me he had "excellent condition" slightly used K03 stock turbos in his hand and could fix my car for a good deal. There were at least 5-6 people here recommending him.

So I dropped my car there and he told me he saw the metal shavings in all the inlet / outlet pipes and the intercooler. He installed the slightly used, excellent condition K03 and a brand new A4 intercooler. He cleaned all the inlet, outlet pipes. He told me I needed to replace my throttle body. I bought one on Ebay but I haven't received the part yet. So he is going to install it as soon as I receive it. He also installed a pair of headlights I provided cause my old ones were cracked.

I picked up the car tonight. He made an awesome work on the headlights. However, the car runs even slower than what it used to before I dropped it to their shop. I mean just so SLOW. It is taking me like 15-16 seconds to get to 60 mph from stop. The car revs up without hesitating this time. So the engine rpms don't get stuck at 4,000 rpm. However, the increase in rpms is so SLOW. Much slower than what it was when I dropped the car. I crossed the bay bridge to see a friend after picking the car up tonight. And the cars stopped at one point on the bridge. Then they started accelerating. But I had a huge line behind me honking horns as I was "flooring my way to 60 mph in 18 seconds or more".

Please don't give me "Your car is running just as a 1997 A4 with 163,100 miles is supposed to" crap. I have the 1.0 bar Neuspeed chip and 5 bar fuel pressure regulator. My car used to run 3 times faster than this just couple months ago. I mean I had 200 HP couple months ago and now I have barely 80 HP I would say.

I know there are lots of very experienced Audi gurus and mechanics on this forum. Please help me. I have put so much money and time just to get my car to what it was couple months ago and got nowhere.

I can bring the car to anywhere near San Francisco or in the Bay Area for inspection, diagnosis and fix.

I just want to get my A4 running like it used to couple months ago. Any kind of help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

AudiAddict B7

I'm guessing, perhaps the catalytic converter is plugged

blackark

Did you VAG it to check for codes? Run some blocks with Vag-Com and try to see whats going on with the engine.

Did you ask Neuspeed if the chip has multiple modes? Did you take it to them since they are local?

Can you swap back to the stock chip for testing?

Definitely don't sink any more money in until it gets troubleshooted some more.

RedBlackYellow

okay as far as where to start? I'd personally suggest an oil change for your car, not that it's going to speed it way the F up but it will surely help with the beginning of diagnosing your problem. Also, i'd pull the valve cover and look at the wear rings on the side of the piston (other audi guys back me up here) but i'm pretty sure this isn't possible without theming apart. so, check for the shavings in the tubes and clean your MAF. Also why does it cost $2000? btw, if you have a vag-com or boost gauge available to you try to check your boost, stock it shoudl be running a round .6-.8 bar. Don't mind the honking cars behind you, if there's a problem with your car you should be concerned with driving it safely off the road before you give a **** what some other driver behind you is thinking or doing. Lastly, i'd bring it to a dealership if you have extended warranty it would help, and see what they think.

And welcome to quattro, it's heavy, it's 80% useless, and it'll slow your car way the hell down. Maybe see if your chip is still working? neverknowif you pop the ECU cover and find a chip that's burnt to a crisp it would be wrecking the rest of your car, 1 reason they aren't covered under warranty.

Also, if your car is tiptronic, the tranny could be slipping or screwing up in a physical connection which would be why you feel a loss of drivetrain power. if it's 5spd make sure your clutch isn't slipping, that would definitely cover why the RPMs are sliding across the tach and the lack of acceleration.

if it were my guess the shavings are coming from the engine and the turbo isn't bad, if you still hear it spooling. although dirt or rocks getting into the turbo would tear at the turbine, sending metal into the engine thus sending it (hopefully) back out into the tubing. sorry, i may be wrong on some of this it was a long *** post and it's 4:58 in the morning and i haven't had coffee for about a week.

Pelican Pete

Many of us try to hide the fact that our cars are chipped because we don't want to be denied warranty work.
However with 151k miles on the car, is it safe to assume that there is no more warranty on the car?
If that's the case, there is no harm in telling the dealership about your chip.

If your car won't rev above 3k rpm, it sounds like the ECU has gone into limp mode. That can be easily determined with a VAG tool or VAG-COM.

If the technician blames the problem on the chip, they can simply swap back to a stock ECU for testing purposes to see if that clears the problem.

This should have been done BEFORE charging you for a new MAF, new turbo, timing belt, etc. And should only cost 1-2 hours of diagnostic labor.

I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune, and I am sorry that I cannot be of much help. But if a professional technician can't solve the problem looking at the car, a bunch of amateurs who aren't looking at the car would have a pretty tough time too.
All I can do is echo what others have said -- VAG the car and check the codes. And swap back to a stock ECU to see if that fixes the problem.

Good luck!
-- Peter

INSOMNIAC

- I should be seeing 1.0 bar boost not 0.6 bar or 0.8 bar. And I don't have a boost gauge.

- It's an automatic transmission. I don't think the transmission is slipping but it can be something with the torque converter.

- I will check the chip. The mechanic told me that he read 1.0 bar sometimes with the old turbo while doing road testing. So, I think the chip is there and working if the car was hitting 1.0 bar boost. I'll call Neuspeed though. And no I don't have the stock chip.

- The mechanic checked for codes and he told me there were no engine codes or anything.

- Nobody checked the catalytic converter. It might be clogged. Wouldn't it throw a code though? Can all this performance loss be because of a clogged ctalytic converter?

- The car is NOT in the limp mode. If it were, all the gears of the automatic transmission will light up as far as I know. And the mechanic checking the codes didn't say it was in the limp mode.

- I don't have a VAG tool or VAG-COM. Where can I get one cheap? Is it easy to use?

Thanks for all the inputs.

fussball.biturbo

1) Swap ECUs with one that is known to be good.
2) Get a boost guage or borrow one, see what the boost output actually is
3) check the cylinder walls... if there were metal shavings in the turbo, they probably got in the engine as well. you could do a compression test as well.
4) check the cat.
5) listen to the mechanics, they know more than people on this board (as much as people here will try to disagree) and further, they can actually look at the car.
6)drive a stock 1.8t '97 to see how it compares, the 1.8t autos are pretty slow. I know you say your was fast, but still....

qfrog@work

that or there is internal damaged to the engine.

ModifiedA4

i'd get a compression test done before putting any more money into the A4.

you've probably killed the motor, and at least killed the cat.

chipstar-32

hopefully its just the cat. but as pete said, have the mechanics check the cat, do a compression test, etc