Audi just shuts off no warning while driving and won't restart. First time ever, in 11 years

[George Selby]

At 01:29 PM 8/13/2011, you wrote:
>Here is the sequence of events:  One moment car is driving normally 
>at 50 mph, then we hear what sounds like a backfire, at that same 
>moment, car starts to lose power, yellow check engine light goes on, 
>and about 1 second later the tachometer drops to zero, and we coast to a stop.

That sounds like some sort of ignition failure.  When the ignition 
module goes out in my Jeep or Ford truck (they both have the same 
style ignition) they always let out a huge backfire then quit.  I had 
a 86 4kcs that would intermittently just stop running while you were 
driving, turned out to be the pickup in the distributor.  Fuel 
trouble typically is characterized by some sort of stumbling before 
it quits, while ignition failure is usually sudden.


George Selby