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No error code is shown when the A6 3.0 tdi dies.


Chrishazle

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What's up,

My Audi A6 allroad from 2015 has a 3.0 tdi 218 horsepower engine, and it's giving me some strange trouble. I purchased this vehicle in November of 2018, and throughout that time I had zero problems.

The top oil cooler gasket began leaking initially, signaling the beginning of the engine's problems. It was suspected that coolant was low, so we added water until we could have a new oil cooler and gasket installed in service. Error codes were shown on the dashboard at the time, and when the oil cooler was changed, the problem went away. The oil was also completely replaced as part of the servicing.

I finally reached the city after 40 kilometers, but while waiting at a red light, the engine died. I was in Sport Mode when this occurred, and as I accelerated to start the car, the engine revved quite high, even though I did not floor the foot. From that point on, I was unable to turn the vehicle back on. I contacted a towing service and had it delivered to the garage.

The Denso starting was the first thing they noticed was broken; the motor had apparently stopped and the starter was unable to get it going. The destruction is visible down here.

image.png.7c39df1804f7083183fd1469405fcc48.png

 

We swapped in a new component and had the men try to physically move the motor to rule out a problem with the motor itself. They decided to open the motor to check for internal damage since the motion was off. When they performed this, as you can see down below, they discovered metal fragments in the motor's oil pan.

image.png.9d336dfa297511798a0b09756938c16b.png

 

These metal pieces had originally been part of the crankshaft's bearings (if that's the right name for the pieces that look like a circle cut in half), but they became affixed to the shaft, swapped positions, and began rotating in unison with the crankshaft.

You can see the removed pieces here.

image.png.1fcc9fbe091fd3ea07b3ea278a1569fb.png

 

The following steps were made at this time:
1. The bearing surface was corrected and new bearings were fitted on the crankshaft after it was measured to ensure it is straight.
Second, the whole oil system was overhauled, including the oil cooler, oil pump, gaskets, and oil.

Since the front section of the car was taken apart, the tempomat had to be recalibrated once the engine was put back together. Since this is something that can only be done by an Audi repair center, they drove my vehicle there to be recalibrated. I requested a motor diagnostic to check for any error codes or other issues that their computer system would detect but my service would not. The results of the diagnosis turned up absolutely nothing.

After finishing up, I took the vehicle out for a spin and put in around 300 kilometers of driving over city, highway, and "sport" modes. It sounded like the engine was running smoothly and efficiently, and it performed well.

Since the winter season arrived and temperatures dropped below zero, the engine developed a little lateral shaking when started from cold. After two to three minutes, this would go away and wouldn't come back until the computer was restarted from cold. The same thing occurred with my old 2.0 TFSI A3 for the whole 11 years I had it.

My vehicle began shaking more intensely, to the point where I could feel it, after just 30 kilometers of a lengthier journey I took yesterday. I pulled over to the shoulder and put the vehicle in N. The shaking persisted, and there was also a strange knocking sound, as if someone were knocking on a piece of plastic with his finger.

After discussing the aforementioned difficulties with the repair department, I towed the vehicle back there on a trailer. There was no error code in the computer, and the oil filter, which had previously included tiny bits of metal, had such particles once again, leading me to believe that the same issue had occurred.

When it originally occurred, they didn't pinpoint the root reason, but they did speculate that a problem existed with the oil pressure sensor or the oil pump. I would expect a system fault to have occurred if one of these failed. When this happened the first time, they replaced the pump and the pressure sensor, but the issue persisted.

My automobile has gone from 150,000 miles when I got it in Germany to 170,000 miles now that I've owned it for a little over two years. Since it has only had one previous owner and has been well maintained by an Audi service center in Hamburg, I have no reason to worry about the mileage. In addition, over these two years, the automobile was serviced every 15,000 kilometers as recommended by the owner's handbook.

I looked for other people who had experienced the same situation on the boards but came up empty. I'm hoping someone can either direct us or offer us a suggestion as to what we should look for. Since I have access to and am familiar with the service, I can provide just about any data or other information that could be requested by the tester.

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