B6 has no spark at ignition coil...
Posted: October 16th, 2010, 3:39 pm
I use the car pretty much only to commute in the winter (motorcyclist). I do drive it almost once a week or so in the summer, though. It's pretty much stock, has 169,000 km on it, and hasn't had the greatest maintenance, I'm sure. I picked it up one year ago.
It started dying on me about two months ago, but didn't do it again for about a month. It then didn't do it again for a couple weeks, etc, etc. Today it died many times in a row, and I think I'm not able to diagnose it any better than a few months ago.
So what happens is that whatever I'm doing, one of the first things I notice is the tach drops to 0. I could be idling at a light, cruising down the highway, accelerating, decelerating, anything. It's happened in all four circumstances. At idling, it just dies like you'd expect a car to die. Cruising and decelerating is a bit eerie though. Tach hits 0, there's no power. Car coasts ok, I'd originally thought that I could roll-start it back up just by leaving the clutch alone and letting the wheels start it again. This worked on the highway with all that momentum, but not in the city. On the highway, it did it again once or twice, and was fine after that. In the city, it wouldn't start up again before I'd stopped. I could immediately try starting it again, and everything seemed fine. Except that nothing would fire. I could keep trying (or not) for a few minutes, and eventually it would start again, and I could go.
Today, it died 10 seconds after starting again - 3 times in a row. And then tried twice later. Fortunately, hard acceleration seems to only allow a big jerk before it quits trying to die.
I pretty much always listen to music in the car (aftermarket deck, but no amps - until today. Put my sub in. It's pretty basic, though - nothing to big). The music doesn't stop when it dies, so I'm not sure if it's electronics.
I had originally thought it might be electronic, because the tach drops to 0 while the engine is still turning (from the wheels).
I've got new plugs, which I'm pretty sure I gapped before putting in. I've got full compression on 3 cylinders, but only 60 psi on one of them. It idles roughly, but not too bad. Runs ok at regular RPM, basically (not that I've ever had it with all 4 cylinders). I've got no dummy lights on when she's running. The only thing I can think of is that it doesn't do it on my 10 minute commute. Just when I'm running around picking stuff up, etc. So maybe being fully warmed up triggers the problem? Also, I noticed on another thread a guy's car is doing white smoke clouds on cold starts. Mine does that too, for a while. Can't remember what it smells like, but it's very white. And by cold, I mean right around freezing. Oh, and every time I open my gas cap there's a big in-rush of air. Is it supposed to turn into a vacuum in there? I'm not sure what my fuel level has been in the past, but today it was empty for half of the problem, and refilled for another couple of times.
So, I'm not really sure where to start. Now that it's had time to cool down, I'll take a look at some things like coolant level, oil level, airbox.... But I'm pretty novice, so it's basically just visual checks. Any pointers?
It started dying on me about two months ago, but didn't do it again for about a month. It then didn't do it again for a couple weeks, etc, etc. Today it died many times in a row, and I think I'm not able to diagnose it any better than a few months ago.
So what happens is that whatever I'm doing, one of the first things I notice is the tach drops to 0. I could be idling at a light, cruising down the highway, accelerating, decelerating, anything. It's happened in all four circumstances. At idling, it just dies like you'd expect a car to die. Cruising and decelerating is a bit eerie though. Tach hits 0, there's no power. Car coasts ok, I'd originally thought that I could roll-start it back up just by leaving the clutch alone and letting the wheels start it again. This worked on the highway with all that momentum, but not in the city. On the highway, it did it again once or twice, and was fine after that. In the city, it wouldn't start up again before I'd stopped. I could immediately try starting it again, and everything seemed fine. Except that nothing would fire. I could keep trying (or not) for a few minutes, and eventually it would start again, and I could go.
Today, it died 10 seconds after starting again - 3 times in a row. And then tried twice later. Fortunately, hard acceleration seems to only allow a big jerk before it quits trying to die.
I pretty much always listen to music in the car (aftermarket deck, but no amps - until today. Put my sub in. It's pretty basic, though - nothing to big). The music doesn't stop when it dies, so I'm not sure if it's electronics.
I had originally thought it might be electronic, because the tach drops to 0 while the engine is still turning (from the wheels).
I've got new plugs, which I'm pretty sure I gapped before putting in. I've got full compression on 3 cylinders, but only 60 psi on one of them. It idles roughly, but not too bad. Runs ok at regular RPM, basically (not that I've ever had it with all 4 cylinders). I've got no dummy lights on when she's running. The only thing I can think of is that it doesn't do it on my 10 minute commute. Just when I'm running around picking stuff up, etc. So maybe being fully warmed up triggers the problem? Also, I noticed on another thread a guy's car is doing white smoke clouds on cold starts. Mine does that too, for a while. Can't remember what it smells like, but it's very white. And by cold, I mean right around freezing. Oh, and every time I open my gas cap there's a big in-rush of air. Is it supposed to turn into a vacuum in there? I'm not sure what my fuel level has been in the past, but today it was empty for half of the problem, and refilled for another couple of times.
So, I'm not really sure where to start. Now that it's had time to cool down, I'll take a look at some things like coolant level, oil level, airbox.... But I'm pretty novice, so it's basically just visual checks. Any pointers?