I have a 97 A4 1.8T. This morning when i started the car, the engine began to shake and a moment later the check engine light came on. I put the car into motion and the shaking stopped. I then stopped and shut the car off. I waited a minute and turned it back on without any problems but the engine light was still on. I took it around the block and it seemed to be running normally. I'm not sure what exactly happened and i need to know if this problem can be resolved at a regular auto shop or if i need to take it to the dealer.

 

Is the CEL solid or is it flashing? If it's flashing, do not drive the car anymore. Going to be very hard for us to diagnose your problem over the internet. You need to get your CEL code scanned.

 

Ok, so the weirdest thing just happened. The ECL was solid since Sunday morning, and today i felt it was safe to drive my car to my college campus after schedueling a service appointment at the dealership on monday. When i started the car after my last class to go home, the ECL was miraculously not on. I'm not sure if that means there is no more problem, there never was a problem, or what. I think i should let the service dept. take a look anyway.

 

this happens when the ECU/computer decides the problem is not serious enough to warrant the engine warning light and stores it as a soft error code so its still there, if the temp fault happens again the ECU throws the light on again until you finally solve the fault which could be a simple misfire

 

That just happened to my 99 A6 the same exact thing.I drove 6 hrs to toronoto everything was fine.Parked the car came back 4 hrs later to leave while warming the car up for about 15 mins i felt the idle change start to shake and the Engine Light came on.Restarted the car everything seemed normal but the light was still solid.Drove 6 hrs home turning car on/off to see if light would go away. 2hrs later it was gone.I also had gotten an Emissions Check the day before and passed.Dont know if they did something?Im suppose to travel back to toronto for NYE but I dont know if I should take my car in before I do so.

 

I'm still a newbie, but I know for a fact that what you guys are describing is an engine misfire. I also know what my mechanic told me - if it shakes, you need to fix something. From what I know, it could be the coil, the spark plug wire, spark plugs and so on... could be a combination of thereof...

BUT IF IT SHAKES, HAVE IT FIXED - IT WILL COST MORE LATER !!!