Ok so I have searched the forums, followed troubleshooting steps and here is where I am at.
My car is a 1997 Audi A4 1.8t FWD

First of all, just had normal tune-up stuff done & I did the plugs myself with a .32 gap. I had the tune up to repair some minor missfires but it only helped for a few days. I borrowed a code reader & discovered I was having missfires in cylinders 3 & 4 as well as having issues with the exhaust manifold o2 sensor. I was thinking that it was the coil packs and I swapped 1 & 2 with 3 & 4 to see if the missfires followed. Drove to work and it was fine. Drove home and all of a sudden I lost a lot of power on the freeway and it felt like I was only running on 3 cylinders. I checked the CEL code it was a missfire in cylinder 2. I swapped coil pack 2 with 4, drove it 50 feet to get a new CEL code & the missfire was still sitting in Cycinder #2. Does anyone have any suggestions of what to do next?

This car has had problem after problem and im sick of paying for the reapairs or parts so if it's going to be much more that $200-$300 im just going to cut my losses and sell it as it.

Thanks All!

 

ICM. Misfires will trigger other fault codes including 02 sensor codes. Im willing to bet money that its your ingnition control module. Located on top of the airbox.

 

That would make sense. Thanks for the fast reply!
Sadly, this car was abused before it landed in my lap. Im already $2700 deep with repairs and parts, just not sure that I want to spend another $300 just to have it not solve the problem completley or have another issue right around the corner. Decisions, decisions...

 

Well if youve done the plugs, and the coil pack swapping didnt prove anything, I would definately suspect the ICM. Coil pack wires are hardly ever an issue. I think you can get an ICM off ebay for less than $300 (not bosch brand, but just as good according to people with personal experience.. Might be Hitachi)
btw, cyl. 2 misfire is very common to have when the ICM is failing.

 

ICM is about 150, but it should fix your problem.

 

ICM is most likely esp if it is cylinder 2.

 

He only got cylinder 2 missfire, after swapping 1 and 2 with 3 and 4.

 

right he has had misfires from all but #1 cylinder. I think its unlikely that 3coil packs/coil pack wiring harness'sfail at the same time.... He already repalced the plugs so the ICM must be guilty.

 

I found a way to test the ICM with a multimeter, speaker wire and a battery last night so I am going to try that today. If I can nail that little beast as the culprit for sure, I will get a new one ASAP.

Thanks a lot guys. Im new to german cars so this has helped me a great deal.

 

+ 1 on ICM. Sounds like the exact same thing that happend to me and it turned out to be the ICM.

Also, after I got a new ICM my CEL from my 2nd O2 sensor stopped showing up..wierd...