pa4ul-I never flushed the heater core.

Thanks guys , here's an update...
This morning I did not drive the car to work because , although it did start and run yesterday , I was worried about what might happen if it cut off on me on the way in.
Also , since I havent driven since Thanksgiving anyway, I figured I might as well wait until I am bringing it in for the water pump / timing belt service.
Good thing I didnt drive it in.
When I came home tonight I decided to start it and let it run.
It took quite a few tries before it finally turned over and when it did , it sounded very weak and died.
Then I started it again and it did the same thing.
It turned over , stayed on 5-15 seconds and turned off.
Then I tried again and when it started I gave it gas and it died immediately.
I tried again and gave it gas after it started and it did the same thing.
Finally , I started it again , it stayed on , I waited a minute and then gave it gas and it stayed on.
I am scared to drive it and get stuck somewhere.
I see a few of you guys mentioned the water pump / timing belt change and that is exactly what I was saving up to do before this happened. I know I have to get that done. I wish I could resolve this problem first though.
I can't help but to think of the ridiculous prices that will be thrown at me and I really have no idea how to go about figuring out what is the cause of these problems. You guys have been a lot of help and the only ray of sunshine since this problem started. I'd like to do as much as I can myself but my work hours get me out of the house early every day ( even earlier since now I rely on public transportation ) and back home late so that all I have energy for is to spend some time with my 7 year old daughter and eat dinner with the family. Plus I have limited tools. I don't mind being patient and doing whatever I can on the weekends , I just don't know where to start. I sure miss my Audi though. Well , right now if I ever find a reliable , honest mechanic for my A4 with prices I can afford , in the Boston area , my list is long.
Water pump / timing belt , check out my lack of heat and the hard steering as well as why the car will not start / run properly.
* Edit-
I'll have the money to do the water pump / timing belt next week but i have no idea how I will get the car to a shop if I don't get this issue resolved.
If anyone could recommend a shop in Boston , please let me know. I did find one in a suburb that quoted me about $900 for the water pump.
Is there a certain kit I should buy or if the shop supplies it , is there a certain kit I should ask for or anything to look out for?
I'll do some looking in threads here as well to see if I can learn anything in regards to this. Thanks again everyone.
I really appreciate all the help and I hope I can help someone sometime.

 

im saying if you flush the heater core you might get the heat back but you need the car running first in order to flush the core properly. i had that same problem with hard starting .. I would have to rev the car to get it to start. IT would start and idle rough and shut off. i had a fray in my cam position sensor wire that was causing the hard start problems. when your car is on does the cel flash or no?

 

No it does not flash. However , the last day I was able to drive it , the CEL was flashing and the car was sluggish. This is what I tried to describe in my first post in this thread. Once I put in the new battery , the CEL has not flashed.
I also changed the burnt out coil and all 4 plugs were replaced with the NGK coppers following the info at A4mods.
I actually just got home a few minutes ago and tried to start the car and it would not start although it seems to have plenty of power. I tried five or six times to start it and it would not start. It's very cold here today so I just wanted to get the car running until the engine warmed up.

 

yea mine was doing that same thing. AFter a while of no start it will fire up but it ran like crap! turned out my cam sensor wiring was fried and my timing belt jumped a tooth.

 

That sounds like a good lead. I don't know anything about cam sensors but I will look it up and search through the site for info and see what I can learn.
I don't know if anyone else on here has been following the weather up here but it's been brutally cold. I actually just got home and tried it again but the car would not start. Sounds like plenty of power though. My neighbor was outside and said it sounded to him like it wasn't getting enough spark.
I didn't want to bore him with the details of what I've been through because it's freezing outside. Thanks for the input pa4ul , I'm going to search right now.

 

Well , from the little bit of reading I just did , the symptoms of a bad cam sensor sound like what I am going through. Is there a particular website I should buy this from if this is indeed what I need? And is there a particular manufacturer I should look for?

 

i have one if you pm me ill send you one at no charge. its used and came off my motor. it was working when it was removed. i just replaced it because i too was diagnosing starting problems. and it wasnt my CPS. it was timing off..

another thing that can cause hard to no start is a vacuum leak.
a second thing you can try, is unplug the MAF sensor and try start car.

 

" it was timing off.."- tofast2belast

I appreciate your offer but this - "it was timing off".
Could any of the things I recently did change the timing?
Changing plugs and removing coils , battery.
If so , how do I set the timing?
The other day I wrote about how my neighbor heard me trying to start my start my car and how he said it sounded like no spark or not enough.
Well obviously I am no expert on anything but I kind of thought it reminded me of when I was much younger and installed plugs in a car but the firing order / timing and other issues were wrong so the car would not start despite the power being present.
However , at that time , I didnt think it would apply since my car does not have a distributor or spark plug wires , etc.
I will try unplugging the MAF today.
Thanks guys for helping me out so much and all the great ideas.
I appreciate it and I am trying to learn from all the input.

 

if you didnt touch anything that related to timing, then the only thing that can cause a timing issue is - stretched timing belt/belt jumped a tooth, not enough oil pressure to operate chain tensioner <- you'd get a code for cam over advanced if this were the case.

do you have access to vag com to scan for codes?

 

No , I don't have vagcom access.
There was I guy I found a year ago on Craiglist who had one and checked everything out for me for a small fee but I couldnt locate him when I tried recently.
Anyway , the car started this morning and I drove it to an indie shop about 30-40 minutes drive from here.
It was highly recommended for the level of service as well as price.
I hope everything goes well.
They are changing the water pump / timing belt and the power steering pump as well as front rotors -pads and rear pads.
While I was there , they hooked it up and got 2 misfires as well as a bad sensor for coolant/engine temp ( not sure exactly but it definitely had to do with temp ) the guy said that this may be the sensor which made it so the car would not start. I explained to him what I had been going through.
I told them about my lack of heat as well but he recommended replacing the heater core entirely instead of trying to flush it but the cost of that is too much for me right now. He says most times he flushes them , spends time doing that and then the core goes anyway or it's just bad to begin with and if I'm changing the timing belt , I might as well change that while he has stuff apart anyway. For now I will get the other things done and do the core in a few weeks if necessary. Just for my own knowledge , can anyone give me a ballpark idea of how much changing the core should cost with me buying the parts myself and without? Thanks a million guys.