Alright, so im driving my 94 A4 Z28 and i punched it about 25mph. As soon as i hit it, the car just turned off and all i heard was air. It was a very quiet air noise. It was probably just the sound of everything shutting down at WOT.

Anyway, the car will not start back up. The car has no spark at all...At one point, the radio was making a repeated thumping noise, but that has gone away. The mechanic reflashed the PCM. The car still does not start...The car is throwing a number 16 code. Anyone ever heard of it? The mechanic thinks there could be a short somewhere. Although, could it be the opti? It was changed out no longer than 15,000 miles ago, along with the waterpump. I really don't know what else it could be...Anyone have any ideas?

 

No one has any suggestions?

 

16 is lo res failure, which is opti.

 

Damnit, how much are those? $600?

Also, is the install a pain in the ***?

 

Install isn't too bad but you have to remove the waterpump and balancer pulley. I always pulled the radiator and fans too because it gave me more room. If you have a/c, it might a little more difficult to leave the condensor in place cuz you don't wanna discharge the system. It's pretty elementary, just kinda a lot of stuff. New unvented GM opti's are just under $400.

 

The mechanic is saying it could be the distributer or the coil. Does that make sense, or would you still think it was the opti?

He isn't 100% positive, so he had it towed over to a friend of his to take a look. Apparently, this other mechanic has delt with this kind of thing and will be able to tell us exactly what the issue is...

The thing is, my opti was just replaced no longer than 2 years ago and the car hasn't had a lot of miles on it since...

 

Optis can be finicky like that but really you should check that coil if there's any doubt about (the coil). It would not be difficult to obtain an old HEI wire and put a plug in it and crank to see if the coil is generating spark. Start with the easy and cheap stuff.

 

my 1995 is sort of doing the same thing only it has some spark but very very weak im thinking its that damnable opti