Hi I recently started driving my 97 A4 1.8tqms again last friday after I sold my BMW 325is earlier that day. The A4 had been sitting since july and i replaced the timing belt and water pump while it was sitting in the garage. Anyways i drove the car right to the gas station since it was on E. and put some fresh 93 octane in it and drove it 80ish miles to Traverse City, without a problem. when i got to T.C. i stopped at a store and came back to my car and started to drive and right off of take off in every gear it felt like it was lacking power and pulling back like the parking brake was on. But when i let off of the gas for a sec then give it power again it starts to accelerate faster, after a few miles this went away. Then i stopped again 10 miles later for 15-20 minutes and got back in the car again and it did the same thing only worse and this time my CEL came on and started flashing, then went solid, the car was almost hopping down the road how rough it was running, it was barely moving and almost undriveable. So later its running fine again (CEL still on) and i go inside and leave it running and come out maybe 5 min. later and it is idle surging, going up to about 2000 then down to like 700, so i turned it of to let it sit for 10 min. and try to drive it again and it once again lacks power and "hops" a little at every gear change. So Sunday on my drive home the car is running fine the whole time no lag, or anything, and i have been driving for about 50 min-hr. and stop to look at a BMW for sale(I already miss mine) I shut the A4 off and get back in 5 min later and big surprise its doing it again(CEL still on) the problem goes away a few miles down the road and i make it home(20ish miles) without seeing this again. Now my CEL is OFF and i'm not having this issue but i wouldnt be surprise to see it come back as i seem to remember it doing this right before i stopped driving it, i had it scanned back in june when this was happening and i remember it said it was miss firing in every cylinder bank 1 was running lean, camshaft position sensor issue, throttle body issue. So does anyone know what this might be, the car only seems to do this if its been running(warm) and shut off or sitting for a few minutes then ran again, and it only does it for a little while. i searched and didn't come up with much maybe a CTS or vac leak? also my temp gauge never goes above 1/4 maybe even 1/6. Any help is greatly appreciated, Thank you, Nick

 

It may be an 02 sensor, i pull atleast the furst one out and see how it looks, maybe cleaning it will help.

 

It did it again today, I stopped for gas, got back in my car and started it, the 1st thing i noticed was that my temp gauge was just below 1/2 then it did the whole no power restrictive hop down the road thing and the temp gauge was back at 1/6. does this seem like a bad CTS like i was thinking? possibly with some other issues such as an 02 sensor which i will check today.

 

hmmm idk what to say.. i have a 99 14 1.8t with bunch of mods.. anyways 2 days ago i had about 1/2 tank of gas and i was driving past a gas station which ive never used in this car.. cheap gas... :/ i still put in supreme though.. so i topped it off with another 1/2 tank. i drove it for about 20 minutes shut it off. turned it back on like 40 minutes after i got gas cuz i was leaving somewhere and it was fine, but a couple minutes later i was stopped at a red light and my idle was getting lower and it sounded liike the car was going to die but it didnt cuz it went to normal idle about 3 seconds later then the light turned green so i put it in gear and about 2 minutes later while i was in 3rd gear going around 35mph, it did the same thing except i was driving while it happened. it did it for about 3 seconds again then came back to normal.. its been doing that on and off for the past 2-3 days. is it cuz the gas that i got is bad quality or what? im trying to emply the tank now so i can get it from the same gas station i always get it from to see if it will get fixed. but as of now im worried.. and once in a while smoke comes out of the exhaust (past 2-3 days) my engine light came on yesterday for about a minute and turned off and hasnt came on since.. ive checked my oil and its fine, my engine temp gets up to almost half way when i drive it for about 13 minutes.. ANY HELP WILL BE GREAT! thanks everyone. sorry if im "stealing" your thread.. it just seems like its kinda the same problem but not really. idk. well thanks guys
Tony