First of all, hello to you all on the Audi forums. Hope you all had a good Xmas.
I am by no means a "car nut" but I loved my VW Golfs in my early days, moving up from a 1.6 to the heady heights of the Gti. An Audi was the natural progression for me and I bought a 2001 A3 1.9 tdi sport which I loved and drove for many years. I then upgraded to a 2003 A3 2.0 Tdi which was a great upgrade but recently has pulling my hair out.

I was recommended to this site by friend when a problem started with my A3. Whilst driving at 70 mph on a motorway I was dropping down to fourth but ended up in second gear. My engine roared and car ended up in safe mode. After limping home, I turned off my engine and car seemed fine....until I went back on the motorway. The car is sluggish in mid range gears and on reaching 65 to 70 mph it again enters safe mode.

Any ideas what I damaged? Had so many ideas from others that my mind is boggling. Apart from this my car has been great, with a broken brake light sensor the only real problem in nearly ten years.

Any thoughts or ideas welcome on my engine issue and once again, hello to you all.