I have a 2011 audi a4 that I have recently bought two months ago. the issue first started when I turned the car on and it was at idling; the car just started shaking and the check engine started flashing for a bit and then went away. I went to oreily to check the codes and I got P2188 - system too rich at idle bank 1, P0420- Catalyst system efficiency below threshold bank 1, and P0301- cylinder 1 misfire Detected. I didn’t do anything about it for a couple days and it got to the point where the car was struggling to turn on. The rpm would struggle to go up and I had to press on the gas for it to start. I finally bought a coil pack and a spark plug for cylinder 1. The car at this point was running good for like 3 weeks and all of a sudden I drove to visit a friend 60 miles away and when I tried to turn it on same problem the check engine started flashing and the car started shaking. Thing to notice too is I checked again on the spark plugs and there was carbon around them dry black stuff and where I usually park the car there was black marks on the drive way where the exhaust is.Today after I took the car to wash it would try to turn on and it would not. After a couple of hours of letting the car dry it turned on again. Any help is appreciated I would take it to an audi dealer but you know how expensive that is. Thank you for taking your time to read this.
I would advise simply taking it to a well recommended local independent mechanic. You don’t need an Audi dealer for this.
Do you have any idea what the issue could be?
Knowing the current codes would help.
Could be any of a hundred different causes.
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You may have a leaking injector.
I’m guessing the p0301 cyl 1 misfire is the root cause of all these codes. In other words if you can figure out the sol’n to the misfire all three codes will go away. Single cylinder misfires are diagnosed by test- swapping parts between cylinders to see if the misfire goes to the other cylinder or not.
- spark plugs
- spark plug wires (if applicable)
- coils
- injectors
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