I have a 97' A4 2.8 2wd 5 speed, i just bought it about a month ago. Immediately I realized that there were motor mounts broken, whenever i'd start moving it would clunk loudly. The other problem the car had was it lacked any power. The third problem was when starting it would attempt to go, choke up, crank again, then fire. It took a good 3 or 4 seconds to start. My mechanic said the lack of power and starting problem were from an off set time belt. He ripped apart the front end, re-did the timing belt and the mounts. Like he said the camshafts were off 2 or 3 teeth. Now the car has some power, runs smoother, but still doesn't start right, starts everytime but never smoothly, and still doesn't have the power it should have. Any ideas as to what this might be? I'm already into this car for way more then I expected. Thanks for your help.

 

Maybe those 2 or 3 teeth were enough to do internal damage. How many miles on the car?

 

98,000 miles are on the car. Wouldn't internal damage like that show up on the vag com?

 

the 12v are just slow cars....i know i have own one for some time now

no ...vag only shows stuff that have sensors. to see if any inturnal damage you would have to do a compresion check

you could try cleening the throttle body and iac. look up seafoam that could help to

 

I'm not being a dic, but why did you buy the car in this condition? Anyways +1 on the seafoam I have used it on all my cars with great results and it only costs $5. After seafoam i would do a tune-up.