A couple of days ago, I was driving when the engine suddenly started running really rough, especially around 2,000 rpm, the whole car was shaking. If I accellerated, some of the roughness went away, but it accelerated really sluggishly. At the same time, the check engine light started flashing. Mysteriously, after maybe 5 minutes of this, it went away and the car was fine. Since then, this has happened 3 more times and the lasts time it lasted for more like 15 minutes. Any ideas as to what could be causing this?

 

check your coil packs.

 

Check your coil packs & spark plugs.

 

You're getting a misfire. If you have vag com scan for codes and see which cylinder is misfiring, swap the coilpack with a different cylinder and see if the misfire follows the coil pack. If its not the coil pack its most likely the ignition control module.

 

And for the love of god STOP DRIVING WHEN THIS HAPPENS. search "misfiring" and read about the problems associated with it.

 

best of luck to you.. you seem to be getting more help then i am

 

^^^your 2.8 isn't known for misfires, and those faults that typically cause them, you've handled already.

 

I did some searching, it sounds as if replacing the coils isn't that hard to do, can anyone point me in the direction of a diy for this?

 

Remove engine cover, unplug them, unbolt them, replace them.

 

waiting for you to pm me your cell,so we can setup a seafoam treatment session....