[align=left]Hello everyone. A week ago my car, A4 1998 2.8 quattro, started studdering when in low rpms in especially 2nd, 3rd gear. A couple days ago the check engine light came on and now when you floor the gas pedal, there seems to be something holding back the car in a sense, it briefly shakes and takes off. Wondering if anyone has had a similar problem. It's not the clutch or anything of that nature. I'm not too familar with all the different injection features of the engine, but I'm starting to get worried. If you are coasting it hardly comes up. Again, it flutters when put into gear at low rpms and when the gas pedal is floored. In fact, the check engine light started flashing when i floored the gas pedal today. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
[/align]

 

Sound like it could be an ignition coil. If you have a VAG tool it will tell you which one it is. Easy fix, costs about 40 bucks for a new coil.

 

Get the codes pulled and post them back here. Autozone will do it for free.

 

On the 2.8l the coils are different than the 2.7t or the 1.8t and all the coils are bunched together so that you have to replace them all at once (one unit, one price kinda deal). I'm in the same boat, same car, same problems. Looks like anywhere from $160 to $280 (US dollars) for the coils, and if yours' is the same as mine you'll need new wires too, as mine are all attached to the coils and the wires actually broke before I could get them off of the coils (still haven't been able to do that, but i gotta replace it all anyway so I'm not even gonna bother). It'll be another $150 or so for new wires. Still an easy fix, just gotta find the parts, then find them at a reasonable price [:@].

I agree that you should get the codes first, though. Could be a few different things, and before you go spending a few hundo on parts you might as well be sure that they'll fix you all up.

Kinda pissed that I gotta do all this now that I'm finnally about to pay off my last repairs, but I guess wires and coil packs can't hurt anyway.