200q20v stumbled 'til it died

[Kneale Brownson]

I had a similar experience, except the car didn't die totally, after
apparently getting a bad load of gas while on a trip to PA from MI.
Several doses of  fuel system antifreeze and some Stabil got it running
properly again, thanks to Steve Bednarski, who provided the treatments.  If
you were running low, you might have sucked in some contaminants.  My fuel
pump was new from six months before the trip, and had made a lot of noise
intermittently, so at first I suspected I'd have to replace the pump.  I
had a spare pump and tools in the trunk for the trip, and I've still got
them in the trunk two years later.  The pump continues to whine quite
loudly at times.


At 09:56 AM 5/30/2006 -0700, Kenneth Keith wrote:
>Let me type this out while it's still fresh in my mind. =(
>
>On the way in to work today, my 200q20v started losing power and
>eventually stalled out/died.  At first it seemed like when I put the
>accelerator down, it stumbled as if there was a boost leak or
>something.  I tried to stay out of any type of boost, but the problem
>got progressively worse regardless.
>
>The car started stumbling hard and I had to pull over where it ran
>extremely rough, as if I only had one cylinder firing poorly, and it
>finally died.  I had it towed home.
>
>My fuel tank was ran very low, but I wasn't yet on the "E line" and
>planned to refuel after work.  I thought I might have run out of gas,
>but I could get it to start and run with that one cylinder for a
>moment until it died.  I figured if I was out of gas then it wouldn't
>even do that.
>
>Then I suspected it was the fuel pump, which normally is quite loud
>like a swarm or angry bees.  When I was able to try to start it and
>run it on the side of the road after it died, I tried to listen to the
>sound of the pump and it didn't seem the same.  Perfect timing if it
>is the pump as the tank is run pretty low.  However, when I called my
>Audi tech friend about it briefly, he said when the pumps go they are
>usually completely dead, rather than pumping poorly.
>