Hi, I'm new to the forum and have a question for you folks. I've bought the baby as an Audi Certified used vechicle last July with 32k miles on it. I've done all scheduled maintenance as suggested. Used only synthetic oil, as suggested.

Yesterday, I pulled out and noticed my beloved car was a little draggy - nothing too bad, but one of those "in the back of your mind things." I stopped and got gas at the local BP station (93 octane - never anything else). When I pulled out, the car shuddered and shook and, literally, felt like it was going to fall apart. MIL light came on and was blinking. I turned around and went home. I could not drive the car over 35 mph and could barely get it up slight inclines. When I came to a stop, the idle was rough and dropped halfway below the one mark.

I had mentioned a similar (albeit way less serious problem) to the dealer last fall when I took it in for service, just hit the gas the car hesitated noticeably and then did fine. They, of course, said there was nothing wrong and the car never repeated the problem. The dealer has already replaced a cracked seal (also last fall).

I would just like to be prepared with some things that may be wrong or things they should be telling me the looked for on the car. Sufficed to say, I had it towed yesterday to the dealer. Any insight or experience would be greatly appreciated. I expect to drive this car until the wheels fall off, but did not expect that to occur at 52k miles when I've owned it for less than a year!

Thanks in advance.

Sounds like a bad MAF-mass air flow sensor. 99 @ 00's had alot of problems with them. Dealer should have found mis-fire codes for all cylinders. Also, you should never drive with the MIL flashing. You were probably dumping raw fuel into the cats.

Well, there was a rather nasty rotten egg/sulphur smell when I was finally able to stop safely.

finally able to stop and check out the owner's manual.

Could faulty MAF sensor have caused the car to previously fail an emissions test? That was the only thing that came up when I checked the VIN before buying the car. Dealer said they ran an emissions test and the car was fine.

By the way, thanks for the response.

I've driven around with the MAF bad and also tried it with disconnecting. It'll run OK, but not as bad as he mentioned.

, if it is the cat converter, that the dealer identifies and corrects the initial problem that caused the converter failure, correct?

cats just fail. You just replace them. but it should fall under emissions warranty.

but chances are it's an ignition problem. It sounds like you have one or more bad plug wires. That, or maybe the plugs are bad. If those look good, then even moisture or water on one of the coils can cause such misfire. Hopefully it's not one of the coils themselves

If it's not the ignition, then it's the MAF. I doubt it's the MAF because with a bad MAF, it should idle fine, but when you give it gas, it will stumble. You can check this out by disconnecting it, resetting the ECU and driving the car with a disconnected MAF. If it runs fine (don't drive it too hard), then the MAF is bad. Note, no MAF connected is not equal to bad MAF. Bad MAF will keep the ECU voltage sensing stuck at lean. If you floor it, you can overcome the MAF with the programmed WOT readings, and the car will accelerate briskly again. If there is ignition problems, accelerating all the way to WOT will make things worst since denser air/fuel needs more energy to ignite. So that's how you can check next time.

And what you smell from the cats is not due to a plug cat. It's because it is misfiring and there is raw gas going through the cats.

A plugged cat will not show symptoms of stumbling as you described. Just a choked response - like pulling a heavy trailer going up a 30% incline on 5th gear at 2000 rpm - you get my drift :)

Hope they fix it, but doesn't sound like something serious (ie engine)