2016 C7 bitdi stuttering at low rev, low load

[Bitdi power]

Hi all

not sure if this has come up before-

i noticed this recently- when the car drops into a cruising gear at around 1200-1300 rpm and I apply minimal pressure to the accelerator, almost cruising pressure, it splutters almost like a misfire…

as soon as I apply a little more power it goes away…

could it be an injector? That’s perhaps struggling at a certain pressure?  
Or perhaps it’s a gearbox issue that maybe it doesn’t know which gear it should select and hops back and forth???

ive just hit the 60k miles so the oil should be changed on it now…

 

your experience is most welcome 🤣

 

cheers

tim

Edited August 26, 2022 by Timmeh

[Steve Q]

What's the service history on the car? 

How long have you had it? 

When was the gearbox last serviced?

I'd recommend a diagnostic check. 

Could also be an injector, MAF or turbo issue. 

[Bitdi power]

Hi there

ive had the car nearly two years but it’s 6 years old now.

it had a service when I got it, and I had an oil service about 8 months ago.

im not sure regarding gearbox service….

can’t imagine a turbo issue tbh as it’s a real fluttering under minimal load- although I’m no mechanic (but I have a bit of knowledge as I’ve built kit cars previously )

Maf could be a good call….

ive got an obd reader but I can’t imagine it’s thrown any errors- but worth a try….

 

is the dealer the only place to go for diagnostics / software updates etc or are there specialists that do it?

id like to update the ecu/gearbox Software anyway and it could provide solutions to the problem….

[Steve Q]

Yea definitely recommend a diagnostic check. Audi are the only place for software updates on engine or gearbox. Might be worth seeing if you're car is overdue one as Audi will do it for free if it's overdue as its a bit like a recall. 

I'd definitely recommend a gearbox oil change if there's no record of it being done. 

[Smitht]

Hi, was there an outcome to this as my car has a similar issue and therefore it would be useful to know how you fixed yours? Thanks, Tim

[Haudi]

Hi, did you manage to solve the issue? I am experiencing the exact same issue..

Thanks!

[Magnet]

Any chance of a reply Shrewsbury Tim? 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Bitdi power]

Hi all

it disappeared for quite a while.

btw I checked for engine codes-nothing.

Did notice it again recently- which makes me think it’s related to Warmer weather- (air/fuel mix? Which made me think of a potential coked up intake) so I took off the intake pipe easiest to access- after turbo and took a pic- it did show some build up near the swirl flap??? (Think it’s called)

ive just tried one of those egr/intake cleaners a few days ago, and it definitely did clean out some crap, as my dpf blocked and failed straight away 🤦‍♂️🤣

Then bought some dpf cleaner, took it for a good long run and all sorted.

 

must admit- the car seems a little more responsive under part throttle load now 👍

whether all is well remains to be seen- but I think it was worth the £13

 

[Haudi]

Hi,

I’m not sure what’s with mine but I did remove the DPF sometime ago as it was clogged. Anyway sometime ago I had the car mapped to Stage 1 409 ps 790 NM. I’ve called the mapper and he’ll be taking the car this Thursday to check what is causing this stutter upon pressing slightly the accelerator when calmly cruising on the highway. Along with that, I’ve noticed that the car responsiveness to full throttle from 0 km, when steady and the rpms climbing to 2000 is crazily slow. Tuner suspects vacuum issue but we’ll see. I’ll update you, once I know. After 2000 RPMS car is flying but until it builds those 2000 from steady it takes like 2-2.5 seconds 😂

Edited June 19, 2023 by Haudi

[Haudi]

Hi,

For anyone interested, update below on my issue with stuttering and very bad acceleration between 1000-2000 RPMS.

The reason for my stuttering and slow acceleration between 1000 to 2000 RPMS is the small turbo not doing its job - due to clogged dpf sometime ago, seems like the small turbo was damaged and it cannot reach the bar pressure that it should hence the stuttering upon lightly pressing the accelerator when calmly driving and car is between 1000-1900 RPM. That’s what I was told, today they will tear it apart to look further. No error codes, cause the small turbo is still making some bar pressure but not as much as it should. Also clean your intake pipes, mine was as clean as new but still - first thing they did was to open and clean the intake pipe.
Hope this helps for all interested! If you want further updates let me know, i’ll post.

Edited June 23, 2023 by Haudi

[Cprocc31]

Hi guy,

I’m having similar problem. Can you give details about the end of the story?

Thank!

[a7313]

Hello guys. Have anyone solved this problem? I got this exactly and its making me crazy. I have changed turbos and egr cooler so far as my vaccum was being leaked from the cooler.

 

Please guys im desperate

[a7313]

Guys please anyone who solved this? Would appreciate it greatly. Really hitting a wall here. 

My dpf got clogged a while ago so I did a dpf delete where they removed the inside of the two dpfs and welded it back paired with a tune so the car is really flying. But unfortunately not before 1800rpm to be exact if you drive it in manual mode. Also removed egr together with dpf delete. 

Changed two throttlebodies before the intake manifold. Cleaned the whole intake. 

Went in to audi for turbo calibration and they only did a adaption wich is not what I really asked for. 

 

[cliffcoggin]

Omar.

There is little chance of getting a useful reply once you have modified the car by removing the DPF and the EGR. It's hard enough to resolve problems on standard cars on this forum; once you change the car to non-standard it becomes almost impossible because nobody knows exactly what was done. Your best option is to consult whoever modified your car.

[a7313]

Hello man, the car was exactly the same before modifikation. I just modified it after 170k km. I had to do it since it had dpf light and egr on. 

Thanks for the reply 😃

 

Edited October 25, 2024 by a7313

[Dongleboo]

On 10/25/2024 at 5:48 PM, a7313 said:

Hello man, the car was exactly the same before modifikation. I just modified it after 170k km. I had to do it since it had dpf light and egr on. 

Thanks for the reply 😃

 

Hi dude, did you find any solution?

I'm having the exact same problem.

The electronic actuator for the variable geometry on the small turbo failed last year and I changed both turbos with a refurbished set. Before it went out the engine was stuttering hard, especially when feathering the gas pedal very, very lightly. After the change I even had the workshop clean the entire inlet manifold, throttle body and everything after the EGR pipe, because a friend of mine with the same car (and complaint) told me that this fixed it for him. 

Unfortunately there was no tangible difference. To make matters worse the refurbished turbo set I bought turned out to be a piece of !Removed! and 2 months later the same damn actuator failed.

This time I went to a renowned refurbishing company and my turbo was fully renewed. Again.

Like everything except the housing was replaced with brand new parts, including the actuators. 

After the second time it's now much, much better. Nevertheless, randomly I can still feel it stutter from time to time. It's not nearly as bad as before. At this point I don't think the turbo is the issue anymore, because it's literally brand new, fully tested, balanced, etc. 

I have a loud injector on the driver's side and at this point I'm wondering whether this might be the culprit here? It feels almost like a misfire, just as you described it. Only happening when lightly feathering the gas pedal. 

Any ideas or developments on your side? 

[a7313]

1 hour ago, Dongleboo said:

Hi dude, did you find any solution?

I'm having the exact same problem.

The electronic actuator for the variable geometry on the small turbo failed last year and I changed both turbos with a refurbished set. Before it went out the engine was stuttering hard, especially when feathering the gas pedal very, very lightly. After the change I even had the workshop clean the entire inlet manifold, throttle body and everything after the EGR pipe, because a friend of mine with the same car (and complaint) told me that this fixed it for him. 

Unfortunately there was no tangible difference. To make matters worse the refurbished turbo set I bought turned out to be a piece of !Removed! and 2 months later the same damn actuator failed.

This time I went to a renowned refurbishing company and my turbo was fully renewed. Again.

Like everything except the housing was replaced with brand new parts, including the actuators. 

After the second time it's now much, much better. Nevertheless, randomly I can still feel it stutter from time to time. It's not nearly as bad as before. At this point I don't think the turbo is the issue anymore, because it's literally brand new, fully tested, balanced, etc. 

I have a loud injector on the driver's side and at this point I'm wondering whether this might be the culprit here? It feels almost like a misfire, just as you described it. Only happening when lightly feathering the gas pedal. 

Any ideas or developments on your side? 

Hello man,

I never found the issue unfortunatly. Along the way the car got dpf and egr problems. Which led me to do a egr delete by software and the 2 dpfs got welded out on the inside to make it like a straight pipe but still looking original. This helped alot and was almost not noticable but since I knew about it i could always feel it. And mpg was also going up. What I heard is that the Electronic actuator needs to be calibrated on the car. I personally couldnt find anyone that could do this for me  not even audi themselves. 

 

Just 1 week ago I changed it at a car firm and bought myself a mercedes a250 4matic. I really liked my audi bitdi but all the problems that i had really gave me depression. I hope you find the issue and if you do I would love to know what it was.  

 

Also I changed 2 throttlebodies and did stage 2 along the dpf delete. Good luck man. I would try to get the injectors cleaned at least the loud one.

[rgh.key]

On 2/10/2025 at 11:31 PM, Dongleboo said:

Hi dude, did you find any solution?

I'm having the exact same problem.

The electronic actuator for the variable geometry on the small turbo failed last year and I changed both turbos with a refurbished set. Before it went out the engine was stuttering hard, especially when feathering the gas pedal very, very lightly. After the change I even had the workshop clean the entire inlet manifold, throttle body and everything after the EGR pipe, because a friend of mine with the same car (and complaint) told me that this fixed it for him. 

Unfortunately there was no tangible difference. To make matters worse the refurbished turbo set I bought turned out to be a piece of !Removed! and 2 months later the same damn actuator failed.

This time I went to a renowned refurbishing company and my turbo was fully renewed. Again.

Like everything except the housing was replaced with brand new parts, including the actuators. 

After the second time it's now much, much better. Nevertheless, randomly I can still feel it stutter from time to time. It's not nearly as bad as before. At this point I don't think the turbo is the issue anymore, because it's literally brand new, fully tested, balanced, etc. 

I have a loud injector on the driver's side and at this point I'm wondering whether this might be the culprit here? It feels almost like a misfire, just as you described it. Only happening when lightly feathering the gas pedal. 

Any ideas or developments on your side? 

Hey Dongleboo,

Did you get to the bottom of this? I test drove a 2012 Audi A6 Avant 3.0 TDI on Saturday and felt exactly the same judder that you experienced, worst I found in higher gears at slower speeds when the engine was under more load and lower RPM I could feel almost a misfire, seller said he believed it was due to a injector that he has agreed to change what was noisy when cold. Wondered if this fixed it for you? I have to re test the car before purchasing but would love to know if the injector solved it for you, would give me a little more peace of mind!

[a7313]

5 minutes ago, rgh.key said:

Hey Dongleboo,

Did you get to the bottom of this? I test drove a 2012 Audi A6 Avant 3.0 TDI on Saturday and felt exactly the same judder that you experienced, worst I found in higher gears at slower speeds when the engine was under more load and lower RPM I could feel almost a misfire, seller said he believed it was due to a injector that he has agreed to change what was noisy when cold. Wondered if this fixed it for you? I have to re test the car before purchasing but would love to know if the injector solved it for you, would give me a little more peace of mind!

Hello I strongly recommend not to buy this car. I had alot of sleep less nights because of this problem. Im Lucky i traded mine in for a Passat Bitdi which is similar performance with a stage 1 tune and imo much more reliable since ive owned one before from 120k km to 210k without any issues except for break and oil change. 

[Dongleboo]

8 minutes ago, rgh.key said:

Hey Dongleboo,

Did you get to the bottom of this? I test drove a 2012 Audi A6 Avant 3.0 TDI on Saturday and felt exactly the same judder that you experienced, worst I found in higher gears at slower speeds when the engine was under more load and lower RPM I could feel almost a misfire, seller said he believed it was due to a injector that he has agreed to change what was noisy when cold. Wondered if this fixed it for you? I have to re test the car before purchasing but would love to know if the injector solved it for you, would give me a little more peace of mind!

Hi, 

I did not have the chance to get my injector replaced yet.

I need the car almost every day of the week and it's very difficult to find time for this.

I have an appointment for the 26th of May to finally get this done.

I also have the exact same condition as described by you. A very noticeable clicking/tapping noise when the engine is cold which then goes away almost completely when the engine warms up. If the car idles for a longer period, the tapping comes back.

The engine stutter is still happening from time to time. Some days it's better, some days it's worse. 

Literally 2 hours ago I came back from the 4th mechanic (break pads needed changing) and he also listened to the noise and confirmed it's the 5th cylinder injector - driver side, middle cylinder. I purchased the new injector last week and the only thing remaining now is to get it installed by someone. 

We checked the real time values of the return fuel and this injector had almost double the values of the collective baseline at 50+ mg/h 

I'll provide an update after I get this done. 

[rgh.key]

12 hours ago, Dongleboo said:

Hi, 

I did not have the chance to get my injector replaced yet.

I need the car almost every day of the week and it's very difficult to find time for this.

I have an appointment for the 26th of May to finally get this done.

I also have the exact same condition as described by you. A very noticeable clicking/tapping noise when the engine is cold which then goes away almost completely when the engine warms up. If the car idles for a longer period, the tapping comes back.

The engine stutter is still happening from time to time. Some days it's better, some days it's worse. 

Literally 2 hours ago I came back from the 4th mechanic (break pads needed changing) and he also listened to the noise and confirmed it's the 5th cylinder injector - driver side, middle cylinder. I purchased the new injector last week and the only thing remaining now is to get it installed by someone. 

We checked the real time values of the return fuel and this injector had almost double the values of the collective baseline at 50+ mg/h 

I'll provide an update after I get this done. 

Okay that’s good news, I thought I would keep you updated with my progress, the seller has removed the injector to find that the copper sealing washer is basically non existent, he has ordered a new sealing kit and is going to replace which will hopefully fix the issues, it is really difficult to fully explain as it’s not full engine misfire just a judder, I would say it feels almost like clutch judder. Needless to say I’ll be taking it on another decent test drive before purchasing it, in your experience is there anything that constantly makes it judder? 

[Dongleboo]

13 minutes ago, rgh.key said:

Okay that’s good news, I thought I would keep you updated with my progress, the seller has removed the injector to find that the copper sealing washer is basically non existent, he has ordered a new sealing kit and is going to replace which will hopefully fix the issues, it is really difficult to fully explain as it’s not full engine misfire just a judder, I would say it feels almost like clutch judder. Needless to say I’ll be taking it on another decent test drive before purchasing it, in your experience is there anything that constantly makes it judder? 

On mine it feels like I'm running low on fuel and the engine is stuttering. The RPMs also judder slightly. As soon as I start accelerating, even lightly, it's gone.

In my experience a good way to manifest my problem is by cruising at low speeds (30-50km/h) and just barely feather the accelerator in a lower gear - e.g. 3-4th. No acceleration, just cruising at a consistent speed. I can also let go completely and very lightly press again and it might start doing it.

Same happens at higher speeds, but due to the high gear, it's less noticeable. 

It's worth mentioning that it's not happening every time. Like I previously wrote, it's a bit hit & miss. I have the feeling that it's happening the most when the engine is still not up to temp.

I hope this helps.