I think the intake hoses are really causing most of the trouble. Just bought platinum grade silicone lines to replace the OEM woven cloth covered rubber hosing. I saw a great number of silicone vacuum lines out on the market but I had to go with the Platinum cure. Much more pliable, stronger and can handle higher heat. Really can't believe the mess created by the stock routing of the vacuum lines. Really bizarre stuff.

 

Sorry for not responding after creating the thread months back. Had to jump on a plane and head to South Carolina an employment contract and left the beast in California. I'm back home now and will be taking on many of the suggested tasks.

Thank you guys for all your assistance and suggestions. It has saved me a great deal of cash and has been an incredible learning experience. I will keep you updated as to how the repairs turn out.

 

How can you say that? Did you clean injectors and throttle body?

It's very easy and you can have a huge difference before/after. Actually, I believe that your car has "breathing" problems.
I would clean injectors using seafoam in the vacuum line, and I would clean the throttle body with the appropriate spray. These 2 are very easy tasks, I did that on my spare car last weekend and I had an incredible result, smoothing acceleration like if the car was new.
In addition, I would clean the MAF but that's a lil risky. However, there are appropriate sprays that should clean it nice and easy.

 

Funny you mention seafoam. I ran the treatment though the vacuum line attached to the FPR. I found my vac lines were suspect while contemplating the seafoam treatment. The treatment brought about a number of error codes and the check engine light. My new silicone vacuum lines are on their way and hopefully the swap will bring about some positive changes.

 

So I swapped all the rubber vac hoses, replaced them with the Platinum Silicone lines, upgraded to the intake with a K&N filter, swapped the seafoam flooded plugs and all of a sudden the car is fantastic again. To be honest, the biggest boost in performance came from the air filter change. I have pics of the new hoses and will post them once the phone cooperates.


Still have CEL P1131 - Bank Two Sensor 1 Intermittent after clearing codes and driving around a bit. Looking at the Vag-Com stats the Cats passed and emissions passed.

Going to replace the sensor, fuel filter and tranny fluid as she is still a bit jumpy in first gear.

I love this website. Thank you all for you assistance. So nice to drive a car that doesn't feel like it's constantly heaving and about to explode.