My 1997 A4 Quattro (2.8) has had the most curious problem for several months which has stumped many mechanics.

When the engine is cold [first thing in the morning, or just before the commute home at night], the engine will stall during the first five minutes of driving. It usually happens the third or fourth time that I try to accelerate from a dead stop. It will happily idle forever with no trouble, but when you give it gas it will hesitate. If you immediately let off the gas and wait 15-30 seconds, it will snap out of it and runs completely normal after that and will not happen again until engine completely cools down again. If you try to give it more gas during that hesitation, it will stall and have difficulty starting again [almost like it's flooded].

Has anyone encountered this? Any ideas?

One extra piece of info: one mechanic thought that it was the Idle Control Valve. He replaced it, and the car ran fine for about three weeks. After that, the car reverted back to its sickly ways, and has remained that way since.

 

throwing any codes?

 

Ahh my friend had a problem like this before! Same year and all. It sounds like the air mass sensor has gone bad....Im pretty sure thats it...could be wrong though

 

i kind of have a similar problem to this, its either a fuel pump, electronic throttle control problem, or your MAS