Can cheaper grade fuel (medium) make my Audi A3 engine light come on and stay on? Dealer wants to charge $600 to clean out amd if that doesn’t work $700 or more to completely take a part" />
If the light is the oil pressure light you have serious problems but if it’s the CEL - have you put gas in the car recently ? If so is the gas cap tight ? It should be closed till it clicks three times . If that’s the problem tighten the cap and the CEL will go away in a day or two .
That CEL (check engine light) is just a kid in class waving her hand trying to get you attention because she has the answer. You need to have the codes read. Some places will read them for FREE. Try Autozone or Advanced Auto Parts. Get the exact code (like P0123) not just their translation into English and post it back here.
Cheap gas might cause a knock that sets a CEL, usually your car would also be in need of a tuneup. But autozone or advanced can read your code as mentioned above. Post the code here and you will get advise.
Audi requires premium gasoline for its 2.0T turbocharged engine. Is that your engine? If so, you just might be stuck.
I had this problem also. My mechanic replaced ignition coils on the two cylinders indicated by the diagnostics at least twice. Then I switched to using only premium gas and haven’t had a check engine light in two+ years. The manual says you can use regular gas “with decreased performance”, but it’s really “with mis-fires and Check Engine Light”.
+1 to Stappco’s post.
People often don;t realize that there are no free rides. Running an engine designed for premium on regular gas comes with compromise as a minimum and problems in many cases.
Wondering what Pitt ever did about his Audi A3 2007 check engine light issues and if anyone on this thread has any more advice on what my dealership told me.
I have an Audi A4 2006 (130,000 miles): My check engine light came on when starting the car the first time in about a week. Previously, I had noticed it was starting up a little rougher than normal but it seemed to drive just fine.
The dealership said they did the diagnostics and found that all four cylinders misfired at some point during the evaluation. They honed in on cylinder 2 thinking it was a bad coil, they moved the coil to cylinder 4 and found it also misfired right away. However, they continued to explain that even though that may help, that would not be the reason all 4 cylinders were misfiring. They believe it could be caused from carbon collecting in the engine and similar to Pitt, it would be roughly $700 because it takes 5 hours and is very labor intensive. - - I did not get the codes from them, I’m going to call tomorrow and ask.
Has anyone heard of this? Are they trying to pull one over on me or do you believe it could actually cause misfires in all of my cylinders?
On a slightly different note, they said during the diagnostics they found that the coolant fan module was misfiring or not acting properly. Therefore, my 2nd fan was not working and the 1st fan was having to work harder. They said with this issue, to replace the fan and the module would be $1150.
This all seems steep for a check engine light to be on, but not blinking. Any advice/knowledge around this would be appreciated!
This is the problem with having all these old threads being brought back from the dead. The person who started it has let the building long ago.
alicar you might be better served starting your own thread and the reply’s will be for your problem and not confused with someone else’s.
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Find an independent shop that deals with European cars.
If you don’t live in California you can get the codes read for free at many auto parts stores. Report back with the code(s).
What Volvo says is true, but since you’re here I’m going to handle this like a new post and try to help.
What they’re telling you about the carbon is possible, but there are other things that can cause multiple misfires on multiple cylinders. Without the codes it’s tough to guess. Post them here when you get them and we’ll start there. NOTE: they should be listed on your copy of the shop order. You should always keep those. I don’t believe they’re trying to pull one over on you, but how well they did the diagnostics can only be guessed at without the codes.
As regards the cost… that’s the problem with owning an aging Audi. They’re great cars (my son has one, his second actually) but the cost of repairs is much higher than Toyotas or Hondas… or even VWs, with which they share some parts. VW owns Audi.
Thanks for those that posted! I’ll post this separately to not confuse anyone from Pitt’s original post.