I have a 2002 A4 with 80,000 miles. I purchased the car with 68,000. I'm not sure if the fuel filter has been replaced. The car has run great up until yesterday. I purchased gas from the place I normally do. As soon as I took off the car started to sputter - if I give it a little gas it will run. 1/2 thottle and loss of power.

Since the change in performance was tied to the fill up, and it was so quick, my natural assumption is bad gas. I checked with the station, they said they had not received any complaints and that the stations tanks were filled the day before.

Yesterday I stopped by an Auto Zone and they did an electronic check - It just showed random misfires. Also engine light starts blinking, stays on, goes off while the car is driving.

The guy at Auto Zone thought this problem would work itself out. I put some Stabil and Heet in the tank. Ran it for about 80 miles yesterday and it still runs poorly.

Suggestions on what I should do would be appreciated.

Thanks

Jim

 

Coilpacks would be my first guess. I went through the same thing last week. The car was driving fine, then next thing you know it's sputtering and sounds like a lawnmower. I got the new packs from the dealer cause they were the only place in town that had them in stock. $40 for each one. The best thing to do is to replace them all at once so that they're all the same revision number. Takes about 2 minutes per pack. After I finished, it ran perfectly.
Then take it back to Autozone and rent the scanner. That way you can clear the code for the check engine light and you'll be good to go.

 

Here's a link for the tutorial. Like I said, it's super easy.

http://forums.audiworld.com/a4gen2/msgs/1003672.phtml

 

Thanks for the reply about the coil packs. It just seemed wierd that the car was running fine. I filled it up and then it started to run poorly. I'll try the techique to see if thats the problem.

If its not coil packs - what is the likely hood that its a plugged fuel filter?

I topped off with premium and some addtional stabil and no diffence in performance.

Thanks for the help

 

The filter would be my next guess but I don't know if the engine light would come on for it. But my car did exactly what yours did when my coils went out last week. I only had one go out at first and the engine light would flicker and come on intermittently.When I checked it later after I'd been home, another one went out and the car wouldn't even start. So I just replaced all 4. After I replaced them I sent to Autozone and they charged $163 to rent the scanner for 90 days. I went to the parking lotand it gave me a misfire for cylinders 3 and 4. I cleared the codes and brought it back inside.
No problems after that. If those symptoms sound like what you're having then I think it's a pretty safe bet that it's the coils. Thankfully it's a cheap and easy fix. Keep us posted though.

 

Coilpacks go bad when u dont expect )) Did it tell what cylinders misfire??? Anyways, spark plugs is another maybe.