I'm pretty positive one or some of my coil packs are gone, flashing CEL, car seems to want to die when I'm not on the gas, run very sloppy all around, I haven't had the chance to get it scanned as I'm too afraid to drive it to autozone and I don't have a scanner. So my question is am I right in my thinking or could there be other things or a way to make sure it is the coil pack. I heard something about taking them out one by one and seeing if the car starts to die and if it does then those are good ones and if it stays the same thats a bad one.

thanks for any help

( its a 99 1.8t )

Edit: dumb me spelt professional wrong twice in the topic line

 

why don't u just get a friend to drive you there, come back and scan to see which cylinder it is.

could also be bad plugs, but most likely a coil pack since its a very common issue that happens.

 

not a profesional, or semi-pro.... maybe educated; but anyways!
yeah take them out one by one. they should make a pretty good diff... if one coilpack (or could be more) doesnt then thats the bad one.
another thing you can do is just replace the sparkplugs. its easy and cheap to do. maybe that'll fix ur problem.
but at this point it could be a number of things.
the spark plugs is just probably the cheapest/easiest place to start!! (at least till u get the codes)

 

2 reasons you need to scan the codes are:

1- it will tell you which cylinder(s) is misfiring
2- it will confirm it is the coil pack and not the ICM that is bad.

you can sit around all day and guess and make threads about it, or you can actually get the tools required and fix it in 20 minuets. your choice.

 

I know that it will tell me these things =) i just wanted to make sure I was going in the right direction and I definitely intend on getting it scanned but I guess I wanted a general idea of what I was looking at before I went and got it scanned. Ill get it done tomorrow or the next day depending on work and post the codes here and I suppose THEN you'd have a lot better idea lol anyways
thanks for the help

 

One more thing to try first, unplug your MAF and see if it runs any better. If it does run better then you MAF is shot. Just an easy test.

 

really? idk it'd run w/o the maf....

 

if the MAF was connected but not working, the ECU assumes it is working and gets an inaccurate reading. if you disconnect it the ECU knows its disconnected and runs off preprogramed software until you reconnect the MAF. that is the reason why if you disconnect the MAF and the car runs better, you know the MAF is sending bad information.

 

Your situation sounds a little different from what i had, but my Engine coolant temp sensor ended up being the answer. My car would run really rough and when i had it scanned it said it was miss firing in every cylinder and running lean on bank 1 and the camshaft position was off. I looked into this after i changed the plugs and it still was having these issues as the ECTS is like $23 from the dealer. These have been known to cause 1.8T's to act up so it may be worth looking into if plugs and the MAF dont do the trick.

 

If you cant drive it/dont want to, get a vag cable from ebay for 20 bucks, and free software, and 4 days waiting in the mail (for cable), + labby, scan it in your driveway