I’ve got a 2003 Audi A4 with about 60k miles. I recently had the timing belt changed and have performed all regular maintainence.
I was driving home from work the other day and as I pulled off the highway and came to a stop, I felt a slight “clunk” and then the check engine light came on. The engine was running fine, but seemed to be very underpowered. There was a rather pronounced “chugging” coming from the exhaust (like one of my dad’s old cars). I was about a mile from home, so I limped back to the house. Upon external inspection, the engine seemed to be running smoothly, although it was moving around in a left-to-right manner inside the car. Also, the exhaust system (dual tailpipes) seemed to be shaking around quite significicantly.
I have an appointment first thing on Tuesday with the dealer but i’d appreciate any insight anyone may have…thanks!
Lots of visible motion makes it sound like a motor mount has broken. The engine will shimmy in place if this happens, and such movement will happen in the exhaust system as well. It’s also possible that you have a chronic misfire condition, which will also make the engine jump around and can very easily trigger the check engine light.
You’ll want to have the computer scanned to find out what code has set the check engine light.