erm?
 

It won't start. Cranks fine, makes the occasional cough as if trying, plugs wet with petrol when checked but nuthin! No immobiliser light flashing and it doesn't start then stop, it just doesn't start. Started fine on Saturday, reversed out of drive and parked it up (30 seconds of running) Monday am, cranky cranky no go. Not had the chance to prod it yet due to working away but any ideas?

Crank position sensor?

That reminds me of a FL 8 I had as a company car, if I ran it from cold for say a couple of hundred yards then stopped it a non re-start would result. Leave it for a couple of hours and it would fire up after extended cranking. Take the very same car from cold and do twenty miles or so no problems, it would re-start instantly. I moaned at Audi who replaced the battery and that cured the problem, mind you within a month or so the alternator packed up, so perhaps that was also playing up.

One trick that the RAC expert did to get me going was to disconnect the battery for about half an hour, the car then fired up normally when the battery was re-connected. That car was nicknamed 'the gremlin' it suffered more electrical problems than any Audi I've ever owned or driven.

Not sure if the PF does the immobiliser light thing.

My PF did the same thing,started it to move it forward a few feet to allow another car in the drive. Next day wouldn't start, then a few hours later it was happy.

Fuel Pump ??? :(

PF V8's regularly had problems with its pair of coil packs, and 1 would die which would kill the spark, but leave wet plugs. I assume V6 is simliar....

At least a V8 would sort of run on 4 out of 8 cylinders, not sure how the v6 would fair on only 3 +++

Could it be the inhibitor switch on the gear lever?

PF deffo does immo light flashing thingy as i get sometimes.

I was going to say fuel pump as it's similar symptoms to those i was getting but i never checked to see if the plugs were wet with fuel.

You're either not getting enough fuel up there to run, or it's not sparking. With the / a plug out does it spark? Process of illimination check the easy stuff first

So. Finally home and with chance to tinker. Try a few attempts to start, no dice, occasional cough but nothing. Battery was slowly getting lazy (2days of trying to start a car will do that) so I put my starter charger on to pep it up whilst I played. Plugs were bit dirty and wet with fuel (petrol supply present then!) swapped for my new spares I carry around, no dice. Removed coil and swapped for new spare I also carry (because I'm old school and paranoid!) no dice. Removed plug and check for good spark, all present and correct. Try again, no dice........ So, fuel check. Spark check. Deductive reasoning means, crank sensor working, immobiliser working, fuel pump working, gear isolator working. Next step......Check for water ingress into relay tray, dry. Check all fuses, all ok. Give it another whirl, more coughing and attempts an almost start but not starting. Plug diagnostics in, no fault codes, and all live data (coolant temp, throttle position etc) reads as correct. Whilst I now start dejectedly packing laptop away and tidying up my tools I give it one more whirl and it chugged 3 full turns before stopping. Try again, it runs slowly chug chug chugging until with a poke of throttle it picks up, runs smooth as silk and so i partook of a test run where it drives like it just fell out of neckersaum. Basically, I have no idea why it mysteriously failed, and even less idea why it even more mysteriously fixed itself?!?!???? Essentially everything was in place to run (right from fail i assume!) but it simply would not play, which is a first! i have absolutely not a clue. Theory's?

how very odd!! :Confused: