Ihave a 2000 a4 quarto 1.8t wagon. Does anyone have info on what would cause my car to spudder almost as if it was loosing fuel. Gonna try cleaning or replacing the fuel filter. Any additional info please. Also has anyone experienced loosing oil with no visible oil leaks and no signs of burning oil. last thing can the catalytic converter be replaced with a straight pipe with out causing damage to the engine or turbo? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Try cleaning the fuel and air filter like you said. Reasons for vehicle to sputter are many, it could be fuel, air, spark plugs, injectors, etc. Also, it is not possible to loose oil without any leaks. However, it is normal if a qt of oil is consumed every 3k miles. If the oil loss is abnormal, make sure that oil is not getting mixed with the coolant through a small crack in the gasket. Regarding your question to put a straight pipe instead of catalytic converter, it will not affect the engine performance drastically. Cat backs are employed particularly to avoid excessive exhaust emissions. Removing it would definitely affect the emission standards of your car, and I would better suggest you to keep that piece of precious metal attached to the exhaust pipe.

 

are your coil packs original? theyre usually the suspect for causing sputtering

 

Original coil packs. Will try replacing those. Also cleaned the air filter.
Need to clean the fuel filter though. As far as the CAT is concerned no real emissions here on Guam gonna try punching the core and see if that helps any. Also gonna do the valve cover gaskets plug tubes plugs new air filter and an oil chAnge I'll let you all know if this helps. Been reading other posts and it seems like this sputtering issue is common. Thanks for the help again.

 

With regards to the ' not oil leak ' I had an Audi 80 1.9tdi and that was using oil without any of the usual signs. Turned out it was leaking through the head gasket unto the cooling system. When I looked into the header / expansion tank there was sludge in the bottom.