Just got home from a scary drive. Don't know what is going on but my A4 1.8T is all jacked up. I was accelerating and all of a sudden my car starts to put-put-put and it starts sounding like an STi as far as the exaust goes. There is virtually no power and idoling is on the virge of stalling but it doesnt. it just puts and vibrates around 800rpms. I can rev and keep a steady 3k but as soon as it idols its putting. I pop up my hood to see if my air intake hose slipped off my engine manifold but that was fine. And i peek down and I see my cat or my downpipe is glowing red up the ***. What is going on?!

 

I should add that i'm running 91 octane gas so I dont think thats the issue. Maybe a clogged fuel injector?

 

It could be a clogged cat. Does the car overheat?

 

ill bet its plugs or coils and sounds like your running on 3 cylinders ( have it checked for fault codes ) the glowing cat is normally a give away when excess fuel is being burned in the cat

 

As far as overheating, not that I'm aware of. This happened about just a couple hours ago. No engine over heating from what I saw. Same with oil. Gauges are good except for the car just keeps putting arround, EXCEPT when I rev it and im idle. Its throwing me off. I'm getting it towed to the dealership in the morning. I guess Cats are under warranty for like 5 years or 80k miles so if its that I think i'll be okay.

All I hope is that its under warranty. I really really can't afford to pay for anything right now. Plugs you say? 3 cyclinders? What clogges a cat? How do you unclog it? avant, what do you mean when you talked about the coils?

 

coil packs on top of each plug,
is the CEL on? and yes the cats are covered and no you cant unclog a cat it has to be renewed ( if that's the problem )

 

hopefully its something easy to fix. i bet everyone hopes that. any other ideas?

 

Get the codes read so you know whats wrong.

You can get an obdII code reader at any auto parts store, its a must for this car, or get a vag com. Without a coder reader you're just grabbing at straws and replcing things that may not need replaced.

Thats the first thing a shop will do , read the codes and find out whats wrong.

 

one of your coilpacks would be my guess. I blew one the other day when i punched it on the highway, they are known to go, that is why i always keep a full set of 4 in my trunk. you can bet i was sure happy i had some on me, it was damn cold out. vagged it clean and i was back on my 3 hour trip home.