A4 (1.9Tdi) ESP Light and Rough idle sometimes

heebusjeebus

Hey Lads,
Since getting my 2003 A4 NCT'd last month I've been getting intermittant problems. The idle is very rough and when I drive the car seems to have lost power, shakes like crazy and the ESP light comes on and stays on.
The thing is, I know when its going to happen. My commute to work is fine in the morning but if I need to drive anywhere for lunch the problem re-appears. Once the engine has heated up, I stop and start the engine and the problem goes away.

So it seems to me like the issue happens when the car is "cooling down" as is fine on a cold or hot start.

I was able to re-create the issue when I took it to a garage. One of the cylinders was showing different values (sorry I'm not technical when it comes to cars).
He put injector cleaner through the engine thinking that would sort it out but it has not.

Before I go back to the garage I'd like to figure out what could cause this happening.

Thanks

HJ

Nissan doctor

Well ESP is the the electronic stability program so would have nothing to do with the poor running. The light coming on may be getting triggered by vibration from the engine effecting something when the issue occurs.

Buford T Justice

Can you get the fault codes read?

heebusjeebus

Cant read the fault codes at the moment. Would they be logged in the car or would I have to connect when the problem is happening?

Nissan doctor

Any fault that has occured will be logged..

Moanin

You need somebody with VAGCOM to scan the car for you and take it from there.

Nissan doctor

Moanin wrote: »

You need somebody with VAGCOM to scan the car for you and take it from there.

VAGCOM is just one software program. Any half decent diagnostic system can read them.

heebusjeebus

I've ordered an OBD2 scantool from ebay. Will hook it to up the Android app Torque and hopefully I'll get more info then.

Thanks