Hi guys I was wondering if this sounds familiar to anyone. My 97 A4 1.8t was running great when all of a sudden I hear a clacking sound comming from the engine. I was going about 65 mph I gave it some gas and the RPM's went to 4k then dropped to 3K with a noticeable loss in power. I was able to make it to the next exit and about 1 mile further when I let off the gas to slow down for a traffic light the engine stalled and would not start again. I had the car towed to my mechanic but they won't be able to look at it till next week (this happened Friday afternoon). My first thought was the timing belt went but now i'm not sure. If anyone has had this problem please let me know what it was.

Thanks
Bob

 

My first thought was timing belt too but if it was it wasn't a total failure if you were able to drive it any distance after it broke. It my have jumped time and bent a few valves but was able to maintain just enough compression to keep it running.