I'm going to try and give as much info as I can.

It is a 99.5 a4 1.8t with all the upgrades below other then mbc. 7 days ago my check engine light came on but car was running fine so I figured it was just the test pipe. 2 days after I drove my girlfriend up to NYC back home. 2 days after that I went to leave to find my battery was dead cause my girlfriend left the dome light on. I took it to auto zone to get charged but because of the extream cold it wouldn't hold a charge so I just got a new one. After installing the battery today the car had trouble starting but did. It is idling at only maybe 200rmps very low and doesn't even sound like its on. It wont go above 2,000rpms when I rev and if I don't keep my foot on the gas it just stalls out.. If i wait long enough it will sometimes rev up to redline but then just starts bouncing off 2,000 rpms again and stalls.. I drove it around the block but it was almost undriveable and I'm afraid to get on the turnpike with it and drive home to south jersey. I tried just letting it run for 15mins, tried holding the rpms at 900rpms (normal idle) and it is still doing the same thing? Any ideas I'm really sunk here!

Thanks for any help you may have.

The car is actually in brooklyn so if anyone is around the area with a vag-com and wants a case a beer come on over lol. Don't worry its a nice part of brooklyn!!

 

what was the CEL?

 

I don't know.. I didn't have time to check it and figured it was just from the test pipe. Everything was fine untill I replaced the battery. could my idle memory be lost or my maf be fried from when I tried to jump it? I don't know if it'll make it to the local auto zone to test the cel

 

u shoulda had it checked when u swapped the battery

did you do a throttle body alignment?

 

no i didn't do the alignment.. I took the battery out and took the subway to autozone. The car couldn't even be jumped cause the battery was done.

 

I don't have the means to do a throttle body alignment that I know of..

 

yeah you do. just disconnect the battery and then reconnect. put your key in the ON position but dont start it. go to your engine bay and you should hear a slight noise coming from the TB and then you'll hear it click when it has aligned itself. some people say you gotta wait up to 5 minutes but im pretty sure its done as soon as you hear it click. then start your car, and see if its fixed

 

awesome thanks man... I'm gonna see if that works

 

Yeah try that first. If that doesn't fix it try disconnecting the MAF or something and see if that helps. Also maybe a bad CTS? I know when mine went out I had ALL kinds of idling and running problems. (ie, bouncing RPMs.)

Josh

 

did you reconnect the battery? lol