Just doing a little extra unnecessary driving today, enjoying my new (well new to me) 99.5 1.8T Quattro. So far, I really like the car and just got several compliments from co-workers, so all is good with the new car. Only one complaint about the car overall, off the line it is SLOW! Wow, I just had a Kia Rio rental car for a few weeks while my ins co was deciding whether or not to total out my old Acura CL and even that tin can car was faster than the Audi off the line! Oh well, I'm past the age where I really care that much about squealing my tires or "blowing someones doors off", but its still a little annoying. Sounds like a new chip would make a big difference, but I'm not sure how much I want to spend on boosting the car, I'm just feeling kind of cheap right now.

The one issue I noticed while driving is that occasionally when I come to a rather sudden stop, the revs drop real low and the engine shudders a bit. It doesn't die or anything like that, just a little bit of shuddering, but I'm just wondering if its a symptom of something else that may be wrong or if its something that's common on these cars.

 

Problem with our cars is that they are HEAVY. You can get a tune (chip) which will make the car a good bit faster, but it will still be a far cry from a fast car.

Some basic questions first. No check engine light? Does the car stumble at all when you first start it? Does the idle ever surge (go up and down)? Also, what transmission do you have? Would it be correct to assume that you have an automatic? If you do have a manual, however, do the RPMs do that if you drop to neutral while cruising? Also, how low do the RPMs go?

 

Do a seafoam treatment on the car. A lot of times this can make a big difference on your problem.

 

Yes, it is an auto trans. As far as the other ?'s, pretty much no to everything, no surging, no stumbling, etc. at least not that i've noticed so far. I'll be going for another (unnecessary!) drive in a minute, so I'll pay extra attention when I start it up.

As far as the seafoam, are you talking about just adding a can to the gas tank or like what these guys are talking about:

http://www.audigeeks.com/forums/inde...ic=1185.0;wap2

I'm not due for an oil change for a while (old owner did use synthetic by the way) so I'll wait until I'm ready for a change before adding the seafoam

 

Mainly the vacuum treatment but it won't hurt to do all three. It's the vacuum treatment that seems to help in the issue that you're having. Hopefully it pays off.

 

Idk if anyone can back me up here but if none of that works maybe a MAF issue?

 

Maybe... can be a lot of things.

 

Yeah, could be MAF, vacuum leak, sludge in a PCV line, plugs that are starting to foul, lots of things. Try the Seafoam - it's not hard, not expensive, and can do a lot for your car's running characteristics. Clean the electrical connectors underhood with electrical contact cleaner. Install a ground web. Lots of little remedies and tricks that can add up to a nice difference in the quality of the car's driveability.

 

As soon as I get close to needing an oil change, I'll do the full seafoam treatment. I still have about 2500 miles to go and since now I'll be popping the extra $$ for synthetic, I don't feel like doing an unneeded oil change. The problem isn't that bad, it normally looks like it idles around 800-850 rpm, when the shuddering happens, it drops a little below that, maybe to 700 or so. I also noticed that I can get it to shudder a little if I'm sitting at idle and I pull up on the power window switch with the window already closed, that does it a bit, too. I'll just deal with it until I'm ready for an oil change and see what happens.

 

Now, after having had the car for a few days, I'm noticing that this really only happens when the engine is still cold. It did actually kill one time and has come close to killing several other times. Does this narrow it down a bit?