I've been reading a lot of the tech forums and other areas to try to troubleshoot this issue. Just got the car 187k km on it. No rattle at startup so I don't suspect it's the cam adjustors/tensioners. The CEL doesn't flash... I'm wonding if it is fuel system related or potentially if the cats are plugging off for some reason. The guy I bought it from said that he replaced the intake manifold gasket, so I'm going to double check and make sure that he's connected the knock sensors correctly. The problem only seems to occur when I want to step hard on the gas. If I baby it everything seems to run fine. I don't have a VAG cable yet but will be getting one...

which brings me to an unrelated question... will the JHM flash cable work with VAG software for diagnostics? Or does JHM have thier own software that I can use?

Thanks in advance