kanetrain33

thank you both very much for your help...jim, i got just over 300 miles on the "full" tank before i had to fill up again when it started acting up around the 1/4 tank mark. thank you for the link too, i will deff send the cluster out, seems like a great deal compared to other options. i really like this car despite this issue. i still only have under $2k into the car, so im happy. just needs some TLC. im used to working on jeeps and army trucks so its kind of a different animal. but its not the german space ship i was thinking it was at first lol..same concept but with more sensors and computers so i was over thinking

eejimm

You're very welcome - and I'm glad you're not getting turned off by all the engineering in these cars. Just more things to think about, but if you are logical about it, it's not too difficult to figure out.

Really sounds like the pickup/pump in the tank is your issue. You may want to pull the rear seat and access hatch and open up the tank to see what's going on in there, maybe wait till you're down to 1/4 tank again to make spilling gas less of an issue. You're getting about the right mileage so that's probably where the problem is, rather than something in the engine itself.
Jim

clancy

I second the fuel pick up as the problem. Had a 98 A6 that hit a rock in the driver's side fuel tank area. Car ran fine until it got low on fuel, less than 1/3 tank, then acted like fuel starvation. Someone told me to check the fuel pick up (might have been this forum). Sure enough, there is a plastic piece that holds the pick up onto the bottom of the tank. It broke when the car hit the rock. The fuel pick up floated up and sucked air when the tank still had fuel. Take pictures as you delve into the tanks. Lots to remove and easy to forget. I had to take parts out of both tanks, left and right to get to the assembly. Replaced with used parts and drove the car another 6-8 years w/o any further problems.

Jac92071

If you ever get a flashing check engine light on a OBD 2 car you need to stop driving it right away and get it towed to a shop. A flashing check engine light is a catalyst damaging misfire. Basically you are dumping unburnt fuel into the cat and there is a chance it could catch fire and burn the car to the ground and that is why it went into limp mode

Tuppidsay

at the fuel pump ohm pins 2 and 3 on the pump, you should have approx 70 ohms when empty and 270 ohms when full. If your ohms appear to be correct then there is a way to calibrate the instrument cluster with a vag-com or equivelent. If they are off you're going to have to remove all the senders and see which one is bad. good luck