Same **** has been happening to me, I had a vacuum leak I fixed, which lead to another vacuum leak I can't find, and now my clutch has taken a ****.

 

Hah my cars decided to heat soak almost to the 2nd line past the happy middle whenever I turn it off, regardless how I drive, and my tiptragic has a fluid leak! I think we should have a national Sell Your B5 and get a new Audi Day.

 

Mine only gets to almost the first line and I get nervous. I thought there was something wrong with the cts or it was normal for these cars. What is the cause for this?

 

God mine has been having lots of issues to lately. Sell your B5 has been an idea on my mind.

Dunno if its been covered: Flashing CEL = rich exhaust that could destroy cats. (Actually it means imminent danger of catastrophic damage soon, but in this situation it means the exhaust thing)

Could you be having a tranny issue? If its only 2nd gear and up, and you hear something bad under the car...

Compression check! Do it! Those plugs didnt look bad at all! Regap 'em and clean em and throw them back in

I'd check out your cats, at least a visual inspection. Maybe lay on the ground and try to shake them while cold. If the brick has broken off you'll hear it.

Finally, any oil change shop or mechanics shop should be able to test your coolant for foreign chemicals, namely oil. That could lead you to a gasket diagnoses.

Thats about as useful as I can be. I'm another 1.8er, sorry you've been having trouble. Monday I was punching it, foot on the floor and shifting at 5800 (in a car with 180k on the clock) and around 97mph I noticed I was no longer accelerating. Also, my CEL was flashing. Pulled to the side of the highway and my car would not idle and it died. Symptoms very similar to the failed ignition control module. I was able to start it after a bit, I had to blip the throttle to maintain an "idle" and I babied her home at 55mph. Driving her daily since. Cleared the codes and its like nothing happened! I swear its a cursed car!

 

well 1st gear is fine when i initially start the car until i shift... but anytime after that all gears are bad.... last time i drove it when it was getting bad the car started shaking a lil bit through acceleration and it started flashing CEL but stopped once i let off the gas...

as far as broken brick goes... what do u mean? like the thing inside the cats? or something else lol

 

thing in cats. Friend had one broken off. and you could hear it banging around.

 

Yeah, that thing inside the cat that you take a hammer and long pry bar to in order to break it up and get it to fall out, AKA, cat delete mod without buying a test pipe. Of course, I would only do that if my cat was bad... wink wink.

Don't worry, guys, I bought a test pipe finally and it's just waiting for me to get home and install it!

 

My car loves to throw EPC codes if I drive down one particular road while using cruise control. Solution: throw it in neutral, turn the car off and back on (while still going down the road) and its good as new. As far as the heat soak issue, I think mines a failing waterpump, because if I ever push the car pretty hard once I start driving normally again, it starts to creep up past the middle.. Not too much, but right past the big middle line

 

u do remember i have a 12v 2.8 right? lol.... i havent had time to get underneath it yet as i dont have a jack low enough to lift the car up, but when i do ill shake it around and let u guys no.... but if it is broken off... would that be the cause of the misfires if its clogging the exhaust??

 

Phil - I also suggest looking at the cam timing on that side of the engine like ImtheDevil suggested. I had the same symptoms as you because I took the cams out to replace some seals and set the timing off one tooth when I reassembled and the car ran terrible. It's possible that the plastic guide on the cam tensioner broke and caused it to jump a tooth or something. If the 12v is similar to the 30 valve, you can pull off the valve cover and see if the timing marks on the cam line up with the marks on the cam caps.