Electronic problem...I think

[QuicksilverRS]

Ok here's the situation. I've got a '97 A4 and have been having some problems. Last week the car would refuse to start every once in awhile when I would turn the key. I would get nothing. Just like the key wasn't connected to anything. I would release the key and try a second and sometimes third time before the car would start just like nothing wrong ever happened. But when I looked at my trip odometer and my stereo receiver they would be reset like someone unplugged the battery.

I checked all my grounds and a couple of days went by with no problem. Then it happened again. Same situation. I asked my local boyz (Austin F-Body) and one of the suggestions that kept coming up was the ignition switch might be going bad. So, I pull the steering column, change the switch and hope for the best. A day or two goes by with no problem, then nothing happens yesterday when I turn the key. Instead of releasing the key however I just hold it in the start position. After probably 2 seconds the car starts up fine. This time with no ill effects to the trip odometer or receiver.

While I was driving I noticed something weird going on with the A/C. All of our cars have that little thing they do when we approach WOT. They cut off the A/C momentarily to prevent further strain on the engine. Well, now mine is doing that whenever I press on the accellerator. It's as if it's become overly sensative and shuts off the A/C far to early. We're talking really early too. If I stop at a stop sign and just accellerate normally to 35mph the A/C will cut off until I hit 35 and back off the accellerator to maintain speed. WTF?!?!

So, does anyone have any clue as to what's going on here? One other suggestion was the PCM wasn't happy and I should reset it by unplugging the battery. Well, I did that when I "fixed" the ignition switch already. I'm desperate for help here guys.

[bu-bye]

yeah something sounds really wrong the the PCM. I had a problem where my car would start then die all in about 5 seconds time. Then it would not start at all. Had it towed to the dealer and the car started just fine. I asked them to run it for a while and after a few min it started to misfire BAD. Its sounded like only one piston was firing. They pulled the car apart and found nothing wrong. They then reflashed the computer and that fixed the problem. No reason why the computer went bad. I had the car for about 6 months with no issues before that and no mods done. Maybe your computer needs a flash. You have tried all that I would have done.

[QuicksilverRS]

Cool, thanks for the help. I even unplugged the battery a couple of times to try to reset the PCM as per a suggestion on my local list. No help.

So, I brought it to Sears to get diagnostics run on the battery. It turned out to be on it's way out so I went ahead and had it replaced. Of course this didn't fix the A/C problem so I figured I just stumbled on another problem before it surfaced.

I'll swing by the dealership tomorrow and have them flash the PCM. Thanks again.