AudiForums.com - engine cuts off but no warning light on dashboard

Hello guys,

I hope this is the right section of the forum to post this in (I couldn’t find a better one!)

I have a Audi A4 1.8T, year 2001, milage 62,000 and in the past months I have experienced quite a few problems.

It all started when the engine management light came up on my dashboard (till then it was running fine). I brought it to the local garage and they said the air flow sensor needed to be replaced. That done, I collected the car but noticed that the engine cut out, seemingly at random. I brought the car back and they replaced the sensor again, saying that it was probably a faulty one.
That didn't solve my problem, the car kept cutting out every now and then. I brought it back again and they had another look and changed the crank sensor. Unfortunately that didn't help either. By then there was not warning light anymore so the mechanic at the garage was a bit puzzled and said that if I wanted to get it fixed he would have had to test every single component of the car - whathever that means - and that would have cost quite a bit of money. So I told him to leave it for now. A few days later - and I don't know whether this is important/related or not - the coil pack failed and an oil leak (the oil leaked on the spark plugs) was discovered. They replaced the coil pack, fixed the leak and replaced the spark plugs, but still, the car keeps cutting out at random.

Now, a few words about how the car cuts out.
As I said, it seems to appear at random, whether the car is hot or cold (although it has occurred more often when the car was hot) and always while I drive. The ESP light comes on on the dashboard - and I have been told that it is normal for that to happen when the car is about to go off - and then if I rev it, the engine stays on, but if I let it go idle, it cuts out. When I turn the ignition on again, if I don’t rev the engine, the car cuts out again. It does it a few times (no more than 2), then it goes on as normal.

Now, I think I have 2 options here:
1)bring the car to an audi garage and see what they say (although that car isn’t worth more than £2000 meaning that if they ask me for £1000 to fix it, then it is probably not worth doing it)
2)buy my own diagnostic kit and see if I can find out anything. The downside of this is that I don't know how long it will take me before I find anything and on the top of it, not being that knowledgeable about cars it could prove quite difficult because I will need to find out how to operate the diagnostic kit, what to do with it etc etc.

What do you guys think I should do?
thanks in advance for your help