Holla after abit of advice if possible....

 

My 11 Plate A3 has developed an issue past few months, for the most recent MOT I had all 4 sparks and coil packs replaced as was running abit lumpy / was told it was coil pack on Cylinder 3. All replaced and changed but when I drove the car intermittently I'd smell fuel really bad (more so when Idling / at lights etc) 

After a week or so when we had snow, the engine management light and EPC light came on and started running lumpy again, same as before when coil pack blew. 

I'll be honest I've been broke so had to drive it around a few time ie get to work etc, had a mechanic look at it today on an ODB, came up Missfire cylinders 1 & 3, took sparks / Coil packs out and sparks are covered in oil and clearly haven't been working

 

It struggles now to even start, when it does start it idles like a tractor......

 

Other than replacing the coil pack on cylinders 1&3 again any other suggestions? Surely coil packs shouldn't go on Cylinder 3, 3 times in 2 months?! That or a deeper seated issue which will probably mean RIP for the car...................

Hello Daniel,

Sorry to hear of your issues with the car during these troubled times - not what you want. 

If this were mine, I would be getting a compression test done on the engine before doing anything else. This will establish whether the car is suffering from valve and/or piston wear, and you can then hopefully eliminate this as the cause of oiling up these plugs. If this checks out OK, then you are at least assured that the engine mechanicals are serviceable, and you can proceed to recheck coil packs and feeds (swopping them over if possible) and plugs. 

Perhaps you could let us know how you get on. 

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

Daniel.

The evidence I have read on this forum suggests that error codes are almost useless for diagnosing faults, so I do not believe you need to change the coils a second time. Possibly you may not have needed to change them the first time as they are generally reliable. Look back through recent posts in this forum for suggestions of alternative causes of your misfire. They include the ECU, the injectors, and low compression.

As a first step I would get the compression pressure tested to ensure the essential components of the engine are in good order before investigating the auxiliary components.

Hi Gareth / Cliff,

 

Thanks for the advice gents going to see if I can get a mobile mechanic to pop by and do a compression test & better diagnostic.

 

Will update when I find out further,

 

Ta

Dan

Thanks Dan,

I would double check that he will indeed be concentrating on a compression test rather than just spending time (and your money) on other things. 

Kind regards,

Gareth.