Took my gti I just purchased down to Auto Zone today because it has a miss at about 3000 rpm and the engine light was lit. They only had a code reading apparatus, it said I had a connection problem or other problem with the MAP sensor. Instead of immediately ordering a new one..I bought a can of Seafoam, put it in the tank and took home some MAP sensor cleaner and plugs. The sensor was really dirty, so while it was drying , I started gapped the new plugs at 32 and started taking out the coils and plugs. Plugs 1,2,3 were covered in oil. Fresh oil. Oh heck. Plug four was worn out , but otherwise dry. After the sensor had completely dried in a good wind..about 20mph for two hours, I reinstalled it and turned on the ignition for two minutes hoping I had things fixed. Started up, idled like silk. Went down the road...same problem as before. Darn my luck. Any Ideas? Have I just dished out money for a bummer? Help please.
Does the fresh oil on the old plugs mean something else is also wrong. I just don't understand this. My wife is a nut. I can't convince her that I have to get the auto running right or something worse is going to happen, so I need to find a way to get coil packs cheap. Any Ideas?
With the OP mentioning Auto-Zone I think he's in the USA. lol Unless you can get the car scanned with Vag-Com/VCDS to prove which cylinder you have a misfire on, it will be a case of trial and error with a new coil pack swapped around in each cylinder, should be able to tell by the colour of plugs which cylinder is misfiring, the culprit will be darker/blacker than the rest.. The oil on the old plugs is likely to be from a leaking cam/valve cover gasket into the plug holes.
Is this something serious? Is it the kind of thing that I can do without paying an expensive mechanic to replace the gasket? Thanks for all the help.
What does OP mean? Yes, I am in North Carolina in the U.S. (What's left of it). I always wanted to go to Britain, since all my ancestors are of British blood. Does that make me a Brit-American?
With my experience of coilpacks failing, the engine light would flash on and off whilst driving. I did have a constant engine light once, and it turned out to be a split vacuum pipe underneath the inlet manifold, but I doubt you have this problem as it doesn't cause a misfire, just lumpy idle. What engine code is yours ? I'm guessing that being a 2004 model, you shouldn't have an ignition amplifier which is seen on early engines. When these fail, they tend to cause running problems. It may also be an injector issue. Keep the engine running and disconnect each injector plug at a time, and see if the engine note stays the same. Do these 1 by 1. If you find that one doesn't change the note of the engine, you either - * Have a faulty injector * Faulty wiring to that injector * Or something more serious like a bent valve or cracked head. These are all symtoms I've had and have experienced with the 1.8T 20v engines.
