Help 2007 2.0T Shudder and stall P1342

[sean1898]

A few months ago I bought this 2007 2.0T with a cylinder misfire due to a leaking valve cover gasket. That was the tip of the iceberg of the problems with the car. I installed a new valve cover using the mahle oem set. Replaced spark plugs using the suggested NGK Plugs. Once these parts were changed the engine stopped quietly stalling but P1342 kept showing. A few weeks later the an extremely rough idle started and I swapped out the ignition coil from cylinder 2 the same place oil leaked in from the valve cover.Rough idle stopped cel stayed on for P1342 and vehicle ran ok. Just about a week ago random quiet stalling started again and has increased to shudder and stall. I P1342 still present. I went in to look at plug wells and found this in cylinder 1



I tried to start the thing and it would immediately die. P0340 is pending. Any thoughts on whats going on here? Also since I've had the thing I've experienced a strong fuel odor at times and after every drive a smell of burnt oil. On my next day off I plan to rent compression tester to investigate whether the worn valve issue might be at hand.

[Digger]

First things first! Strong fuel odor. Unless you have great insurance and don't mind sitting on the side of the road waiting for the fire truck, or watching your garage burn to the ground, if that fuel smell isn't coming from the tail pipe you better check your fuel lines, fuel pressure regulator, fuel rail, injector seals and every place under the hood and car that handles gas in and out.

For a couple of months in the hole, the plug from cylinder #1 looks terrible and the carbon deposit at the bottom of the hole looks just as bad. If you torqued the plugs to spec when you installed and didn't have this black at the bottom when you did your valve cover gaskets, you will be doing some thread repair work to fix this problem.

Question, Does swapping the coil mean changing position with a different cylinder, or des it mean replacing one coil with new.
P0340 is almost never the ION module and when its not the cable connection you go to the ECU, but your P1342 staying on in cyl 2 after swapping the oil soaked coil and the car running OK for a couple of weeks with this code present suggests that you may just have a bad ION module.

[sean1898]

That carbon was present in the hole when I changed the the plugs about two weeks after buying it and torqued to spec upon install. The replacement ignition coil came from the the previous owner as well so I can only assume it is not new. After a few hours of research I've found that sourcing ignition coils is pretty difficult.

I have checked the fuel lines, injectors, etc. and haven't found any leaks. The is a bad seal from the airbox hose to the turbo.... I do have the faulty fuel level sensor problem so I'm not confident that all is well with the fuel pump. Though the fuel odor doesnt present in the rear and only happens when the engine is running.

[Digger]

With no obvious leaks or fuel stains I suggest pulling the vacuum hose at the fuel pressure regulator and giving the vacuum line a quick sniff for the smell of raw fuel. A sticky purge valve can also cause a shudder and stall with raw gas smell, but they aren't as easy to check.