fault p1031

W

weeda

Member
hi guys, im new to this site and also a relitivley new a2 owner (12months), i love my little car however i have had a few niggles with it and having paid out at main dealers thought i would seek alternative advice, my latest prob is the engine management light being on, its saying fault p1031 intake manifold air control valve position sensor specification not attained.
is it fixable other than at a garage? and what does it involve??
louisa
 
well i took it to a audi specialist and they want to do a diagnostics even though i produced the print out of fault????? £35 for the pleasure.
have read in depth the fault problems these little cars have and the engine management light seems a popular one, is this a fixable fault at home? or is there anyone in west yorkshire willing to help me??? im at my wits end with it now and am not sure if its damaging the car driving with the light on????
this seems a very helpful and knowledgable site and hoping i can be helped
lou
 
Hi Louisa, welcome to the A2oc.
There are a few different problems which would generate this fault code - see link
http://wiki.ross-tech.com/index.php/17439/P1031/004145
If it was my car, I'd check the prices of the easy to change bits and if not too exensive, swap them one at a time. There is probably a 50/50 chance of fixing it but the big risk is that it doesn't and you still end up taking it to a dealer.
If you provide more details of your car (year, model etc) and your approx location, other club members may be able to offer more advice or recommend an independent garage which would be much cheaper than taking it back to Audi.

Cheers Spike
 
oops i forgot to say the important bits......typical woman eh????
it a 53 plate a2 1.6 fsi sport
have had it in a gagrage numerous times and keeps popping the same code up, have had a air leak fixed hoping this was the problem but the light came on within half hour, the next suggestion was to replace a air manifold? ( think that was it) about £10 i think but never got it done as some idiot bumped into me so ive only just had that fixed.
am i doing any damage to it driving with the light on? it seems its a case of trial and error :mad:
im in wakefield west yorkshire if anyone close by???
 
well after reading loads on this prob ive resigned myself to probably living with the light on!!!
im going back to my original garage today who have been really helpful and wanted to change the air flow summat or another its only about £10 so might aswell try it.
they have said they will strip it down and clean it if all else fails but sound like a big job to me which means money:(
 
Hi Louisa
If you decide to have it fixed in the future the attached illustration and overview may help you understand what's involved.
The intake manifold contains a flap system which alters the area of the ports to maximise airflow (helps emissions,drivability and economy)
The flap is operated by a vacuum actuator (item17-£70) - if the flap sticks due to carbon build up the plastic link rod can break. Its a complete replacement if this or the actuator itself fails.
Vacuum for the actuator is controlled by a solenoid valve (item25-£44) If any of the pipes to and from the valve get blocked or damaged (holed) the actuator will not work. Same applies if the solenoid valve or its electrical power supply fail
The intake manifold flap potentiometer (item14-£35) signals to the engine ECU (brain) when the flap is in the correct position. If this fails the engine assumes the flap is not working.
Any of the above failure modes will trigger a fault code and the warning lamp

Some of our members have fixed a few of these problems and may hopefully add to or correct the above.

Cheers Spike

PS - 'typical woman' - I don't think so. All our female members seem to be refreshingly enterprising, both in searching out our owners club and understanding their cars well enough to write in with sensible questions.
 
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hi spike, thanks for the help, its been back in this morning and its reading that the valves are stuck open!!! the garage has said its a case of stripping it down to see if its the motor thats failed or if its just that they are so dirty that they wont allow the motor to free them, does this make sense?
either way it sound like a long job to strip the car down therefore expensive!!!
all in all im at my wits end!!! if anyone on here is willing to help i will gladly travel to have my "little bus" fixed, the garage have said that they have never stripped a a2 down but i have used them for many a year and trust them not to rip me off however i think i would feel more confident a a2 specialist helping me out.
im desperate to persever with this car as i love it but i do have a habit of getting rid b4 it gets too expensive!!!!
lou
 
Mine turned out to be the solenoid valve - it was working but leaking and the flap was creeping back slowly. It is not difficult to diagnose which of the components spike described is faulty if you know what to look for. I am in Derby if you want a second look?

cheers
 
Solenoid can be done without major strip down in about 40mins, but Potentiometer or maifold flap replacement or clean is a strip down - that took me 4 hours.
 
thanks again, im at the stage where it seems my mechanic wants to strip down the engine!!!!
he suggested some sort of cleaning stuff (similar to red ex) as a try see if that cleared anything???
any thoughts on this?
and bdub, would it be a possiblility for me to nip through, i say nip i think it will be a good hour n half journey!
 
Where in west yorks are you? - PM me if you don't want to publish - i don't think redex will clear it, but is a low cost try.
 
have pmd you my address, thanks for all your advice this forum is a real help i dont feel all alone with my problems now...... still frustrated though:D
 
Thought I'd resurrect this thread as I'm looking at having to do this fairly soon :( My engine light is on and I'm getting the same fault codes that you lot have had.

bdub Are you still around in Derby? I'm in Tamworth so not a million miles away.
 
I have had this same error code for at least a year now. I've had various parts replaced and this error code still comes back after resetting using VCDS.
So far Ive had changed:

vacuum actuator the arm had originally snapped
Intake Manifold Tuning Valve (N316)
Intake Manifold potentiometer (G336)
Inner Intake manifold with flaps

Every time the error code comes back like an old friend. I've spent over £500 just on parts nevermind labour.
Worse thing now is my garage guys have run out of ideas. In elsawin it suggests that the adaptation should be performed after the manifold is changed.

Looked in VDCS for this and not sure where is it, Do I need to login before adaptation can be accessed or used. What is the login code for the engine

Please further help much appreciated
Regards
Tony
 
I'm one of the unlucky not managing to solve this (even with the help of local garage, probably need to ask local Audi to change the whole engine next as the last resort...).

So far done:
- Removed and cleaned intake manifold (wasn't that carbonized actually).
- Changed "all relevant parts" (G336 potentiometer, solenoid).
- Checked correct movement of the flaps before re-installing the manifold

So what happens now:
- Idle: No error code. Channel 142 (VCDS) shows value of 100% (both for target and actual value).
- High RPM: Error code 17439. Channel 142 target value 0%, actual ca. 40%. However, the actuator works perfectly and in my opinion the flaps reach the target position. If I gently push the rod with a screwdriver, there's no visible movement but the value may drop slightly as the flaps and rods may bend slightly (say 5%).

Tried basic setting of channel 142, but it says "ERROR" instead of "ADP OK" - probably because 0% value hasn't been achieved.

The fun thing is I've found a couple of forum posts here and there with exactly the same problem (including the post above), some even with the same VCDS channel 142 outputs - however in none of the cases have I found if (and how) the problem was cured in the end.

So, finally, my question is: Has anyone got any idea what to do next? Is there some secret "basic setting" that needs to be performed with a new potentiometer? Could it be a problem with the wiring, ECU, or something else? Does anyone know what should be the resistance (in ohms) for the potentiometer in max and min positions?
Any help would be very much appreciated!
 
dumo said:
I'm one of the unlucky not managing to solve this (even with the help of local garage, probably need to ask local Audi to change the whole engine next as the last resort...).

So far done:
- Removed and cleaned intake manifold (wasn't that carbonized actually).
- Changed "all relevant parts" (G336 potentiometer, solenoid).
- Checked correct movement of the flaps before re-installing the manifold

So what happens now:
- Idle: No error code. Channel 142 (VCDS) shows value of 100% (both for target and actual value).
- High RPM: Error code 17439. Channel 142 target value 0%, actual ca. 40%. However, the actuator works perfectly and in my opinion the flaps reach the target position. If I gently push the rod with a screwdriver, there's no visible movement but the value may drop slightly as the flaps and rods may bend slightly (say 5%).

Tried basic setting of channel 142, but it says "ERROR" instead of "ADP OK" - probably because 0% value hasn't been achieved.

The fun thing is I've found a couple of forum posts here and there with exactly the same problem (including the post above), some even with the same VCDS channel 142 outputs - however in none of the cases have I found if (and how) the problem was cured in the end.

So, finally, my question is: Has anyone got any idea what to do next? Is there some secret "basic setting" that needs to be performed with a new potentiometer? Could it be a problem with the wiring, ECU, or something else? Does anyone know what should be the resistance (in ohms) for the potentiometer in max and min positions?
Any help would be very much appreciated!
Click to expand...

Hi all I have the same problem as in quote. I've been looking through the forum and found this old post.
Any help would be appreciated.
 
Hello,

I can't answer any questions as I don't have enough experience of the manifold flaps unfortunately. I'd just like to add though, that within VCDS there is an output test for the FSI engine that basically exercises the manifold flaps by opening and closing them repeatedly. I'm not sure if exercising them like this would actually help to stop them getting blocked up, but it certainly confirms operation of the actuator, because you can see the linkage moving.

Regards,

Matt.
 
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