Hey guys, I have a 1995 TSi, nothing done to it other than intake and exhaust. Its been running on two cylinders for the past 3 months and I cant figure out why.

So heres the story, I came home parked the car, two hours later I went outside started it up and it was running on the middle two cylinders so I came on here posted a help me thread. Everything I was told to check/replace I did, so heres the list.

I changed the power transistor to a known working one.
I changed the coils to know working coils.
I changer the ECU to a 97 ecu and swapped plugs.
I am going to change the CAS this week, although it didnt throw codes

The weird thing is its hit or miss, sometimes ill start it and it will fire on 4 other times fire two, I just dont understand, the worst thing is I had to have it towed home, 80 bucks just for it to fire on 4 as soon as it was off the flatbed.

If anyone has any other ideas of why it might be firing on two let me know, its getting fuel just not spark. Thanks for the help guys, Its greatly appreciated!

Did you check the connector/wiring for the coil pack & transistor?

yes sir, forgot to mention that checked all the wiring from ecu to power transistor and cleaned the plug out aswell to make sure it was making good contact

I think CAS is next then!

yeah im pulling the car into the garage tommorow and pull the timing covers off to get to it, anything else it could be if that doesnt work? snows starting to melt and Im getting anxious to get it going

Change your injector resistor pack.

for the love of GOD listen to this!

So the injector resistor pack would be causing the sometimes running on 4 sometime on 2 problem? Is it in the same circuit as the coils or something? I just dont see how that would have anything to do with spark, I'm a noob haha.

Buddy, Your preaching to the choir. I tried new wires, plugs and a whole whack of other junk, turns out my resistor pack was bunk. Before I fixed it I rage quit my tsi and got rid of it. F^CK!NG do it!

have you confirmed that the 2 cylinders are not sparking?

For sure only two cylinders are sparking. the center two.

Well in that mind that rules out the injector resistor pack.

I would look into the connectors at the coil, cas, and transistor pack then. I find the wires entering the connectors tend to be brittle and sometimes exposed.
I know my transistor clip still had the metal wire to hold it down, but part of the clip was cracked off, so the one side was able to slide a few mm's and caused a similar issue.

My bet is that you have a broken wire unplug the transister and fallow the harness, you may have to cut the cover, but I bet you find a broken wire in there

I had a similar issue. I sent it to 2 different shops and paid a ton in diags. I eventually switched to a 1g CAS and used the docs from magnus to reroute/bypass the crank sensor similar to a 1g head swap. I think it might have been my crank sensor but either way solved my problem.

So after 8 months of battle, I have figured it out. I replaced my battery. Now it runs. This is why I love owning my DSM, hes a sneaky little feller.