I'm in the Air Force, and I get off of work the other morning super early. Its a great morning and I just left my base and I'm going home up the highway and all of a sudden I had to slam on my brakes because of some woman that decided to turn left at the last second before a red light. Anyways, now my RPMs keep dipping and when my car is in Park, Reverse, Neutral, or First gear, it sounds like a boat motor that's about to die out. The check engine light is on. I checked the ignition coils, and all of them spark just fine. The high school guy at AutoZone ran the codes for me and he said it was just a misfire in a few cylinders. He was like, "just seems like you need a tune-up." I think not, because I take care of my car and keep up on scheduled maintenance. Its a 2005 B6 A4 1.8T Quattro, automatic transmission, and I just barely broke 60K miles on it. I'm kind of stumped here and I would love to be able to pinpoint and possibly fix the problem before having to bring it in to the shop and pay an arm and a leg. The car accelerates normally and the gears shift smoothly; there's no slipping or grinding so I'm pretty sure its not the transmission but the engine does chug weird, like I said, like a boat. So yeah, if anyone could give any pointers or suggestions as to what I could do, please let me know. Your advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks much.

 

how did you check your coilpacks? You cant say whether they are good or bad by just looking at them. If you remember what cylinders misfire, while the car is on, disconnect coils (on those misifiring cylinders), if nothing happens (if doesnt start shaking more) than your coils are gone.

 

I did take them out... I actually replaced all of them. That didn't work. Any ideas as to what else it could be? Maybe something else that could be causing a misfire? Thanks.

 

Did the kid at Auto Zone give you the codes by any chance?

 

then prolly a vacuum leak.
open your hood and try to listen carefully for any unusual air leaks sound.
usually, check valves fail though. Here is a DIY also
http://www.a4mods.com/index.php?page...tml&category=5