This is not my car, but a photo from AudiDIY.com
OK guys I found the problem. Pardon my non-technical speech. I will try to attach photos. First of all, I temporarily fixed the problem. When I had bought the car the front lower sway bar was detached on the passenger side, so I took it to a shop to fix the whole thing. But now, the top bolt on the link is bent, and was falling out...the only thing holding it in was the shock assembly. Whats worse is that the bolts in there are short, and dont go through the entire link, so there are no nuts holding them in on either side. So I figure with all the vibration that bolt shook itself loose. I pushed it back in temporarily, and will go down to Home Depot to find some longer ones with nuts. Thanks guys.

While I was down there I checked out my exhaust leak...the flexpipe on the driver side is completely disconnected. Gotta get that fixed.

Last thing, can someone please tell me where the coolant temp sensor is? I know its on the passenger side, but where exactly?

Thanks a lot guys.

 

IIRC there are a couple coolant temp sensors, one on the block, one in the reservoir, and one on the radiator itself; as far as I know, its the one on the block that the temp gauge in the instrument cluster reads from. It is on the passenger side and you can see it looking straight down just below the air intake piping. It'll be a square connector, either blue, green or black, most likely blue or black for your year. IF you've got smallish hands, you should be able to pull it out without moving anything out of the way; if not, you'll have to pull out the intake piping to get a better grab at it.

As for the suspension stuff, glad you found the problem. Hope you can get it patched up soon, what you found is definitely what is causing your problems so the sooner you get it fixed, the more you'll be able to enjoy the car's full potential (which, I will note, isn't much speedwise with the 2.8 motor) without risking a serious accident.

 

Thanks for the help man. I definitely dont have small hands, so I will be moving stuff. As far as the bolts go, I will just go to Audi tomorrow and pick up a couple if they have them...my friends insist. Guess they're right. I just hate dealership prices on anything....thats the reason I used to work on my own cars anyway...

 

So I went back to work on this, and it just looks to me like EVERY bolt is installed backwards...I took off the nut off the lower strut bolt, and it doesnt come out...it is blocked by the lower control arm. So now in order to change those 2 endlink bolts, I will have to remove the control arms....FML I give up.