I have a weird one for ya'll.

First off: 1996, Audi A6 Quatro Wagon, automatic transmission.

I was driving on a nice sunny 80 degree day in Denver, accelerating out of a stop light, happy as a clam, when I had a loss of power to the wheels. It almost felt like it was out of gas, or like when you try to accelerate through 15 miles per hour in 5th gear. "Ka-lunk, ka-lunk, ka-lunk." It would accelerate for a quarter of a second, decelerate for a quarter of a second, accelerate for a quarter of a second, etc. I let off the gas, and the problem immediately stopped as I used minimal power to get to the side of the road.

At this point, everything idled normally, but sitting there I noticed a pungent smell wafting up. At first I thought clutch, but it may have been burning wires? Anyway, I popped the hood, but everything looked and smelled normal. I got back inside, and the smell was definitely originating from in there somewhere. Revving the engine in Park and Neutral, all normal.

After 5 minutes, the smell started going away, so I decided to test drive it a bit. Everything was perfectly normal. Slow accelerations, hard accelerations, shifting, all normal.

However, I now have no sound from any of the speakers (although the radio turns on and I can see the stations change as I select them). Actually, when I turn the radio on, I hear a very slight hiss out of each speaker. The volume control does not affect the hiss at all. I also lost the "single-tap" feature on the right front window that rolls the window all the way up and down. I now have to hold it down and wait.

Any thoughts? Short circuit maybe? Would that cause the car to stop and start like I described?

Thanks for the help!

 

Do the head and tail lights still work? Sometimes the ignition switch fails, and this causes some things to not get power.

 

yep. Everything else is normal.

Also, after returning from a 2 week vacation, my car windows all work normally again.

So now it's just the speakers hissing...

 

Hey, I fixed it.

I disconnected the amp (behind the 6 CD changer by the left rear wheel-well).

For some reason, the amp is screwing everything up. Without it, everything sounds like it did when I bought the car last year. Perhaps the amp was never working? Or if it was, what's the use of the stupid thing?? I only have the stock Bose system, no huge speakers or anything. It seems the stock system doesn't even need an amp.

 

That's cool that you were able to pin point the issue. I really don't know about Germans and their electrical issues. Every single german cars that I have owned them had them. The issues come and go and one day is different then the next. But oh well, I guess we all just live with them.

 

Better than that Lucas crap in my MG!