So I was pulling out of work today, nothing going on. I come to a stop and my car dies and the battery light is on. I check the Battery gauge and its on about 14. Well so I restart it, which it was hesitant to do and start to drive off. Goes well for about a minute then it starts bucking reving to 3k then dropping does that for about ten seconds and from there it seemed fine. No troubles at all.

1998 2.8

Any ideas on what this might be?

 

No codes? Also, as a rule of thumb, I always check the battery with a volt meter at the battery and look for 12.6 volts. 12.0 volts is a dead battery. I never have much faith in the dash guage. As for the hiccup, I don't know. My diesel experience has seen brief fuel starvation, or air causing such a problem. The engine revs and bogs as it tries to compensate and keep levels at spec. Did you just fill the tank? if so, was it on E? The other thing you could do is just drive with the fingers crossed all the time!

 

Its a normal unleaded gas car and not a diesel. And yes I did just fill my car up about 20 min before all that happend. The car sat during that time as well for a bit.

I drove it around for a bit now and nothing happend like I experienced.

So could that have been a problem?

And yes it was between the E and the redline above it.

 

Possible that the pick up tube in the tank had some crud in or on it briefly creating a blockage. Hopefully, that's it and you'll never see any further problems.

 

I hope so...get to find out tomorrow on my way to work.

 

Can't tell without fault codes, the battery light will always be on if the car dies and the key is still in the ON position. So its possible that it has nothing to do with the battery, in fact after the engine is running you could dis-connect the battery cables and the engine would still run because the alternator is providing the power after the engine is started.
Get the fault codes pulled.

 

Seems to be fine now. I will get codes Monday when I get the vag back.

 

Hey Audi Tech 79 good to see your still around... You always have suggestions and comments that are right on!!

 

Thanks! I've just been really busy with work and trying to buy a house, i'll be back more often in the next few months. [8D]

 

When was the last time that you changed the fuel filter? A plugged fuel filter may cause the engine to loose power. When you first turn the key to on, but not to start, you should hear the fuel pump run for about one second. Without the codes it is hard to guess correctly. The EGR valve would give a code or its monitor would fail if it were the problem. You could have carbon in the EGR passage which prevents the EGR temperature sensor from working, if the EGR monitor fails, but there is no EGR code.