Genuinely In Need of Help..

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Hi, So pretty much I have this problem that I have had for a long time now and I have been through somewhat a series of events ever since the start of this current issue.. I have lost my mind and wanted to give up so many times because I still after a whole year have not been able to fix this or even find someone who knows what the problem is or might be. If anyone that reads this is able to help or give me any advice you have no idea how much it would mean to me.. I apologize for the length of this post, but if there is someone that might know what's going on or might be able to help me then I feel like this information is relevant. Anyway, let me fill you in...

So I had purchased a 2002 Audi A4 B6 1.8t Quattro (5 Speed Manual) about a year ago during the summertime. I had purchased the car through a younger friend of mine and he pretty much had never even really drove the car and really never touched it. I know that his parents bought the car from someone that lived in Idaho and the car was transported to Colorado shortly before I had purchased the car. I
drove the car for a few hours just fine but then noticed the vehicle started stalling on me. The car would stall whenever I would come to a stop, Example is: I would take it out of gear as I got close to a red
light or stop sign and the car would stall once I take it out of gear or at an Idle. Sometimes it would take 20 maybe 30 seconds before it would stall, other times it would stall as soon as I push in the clutch. The car would always start right back up but would stall anywhere from 10 seconds to 45 seconds after turning the car back on. I had done a few things that I thought might help. I changed the spark plugs, I cleaned the TB because it was very dirty, I changed the Air Filter that was definitely in need of replacement, I also bought a new battery because the battery that was in was not even the right battery and just a couple of other small things.. The car had a CEL light, but when I cleaned the TB it made it to where I do not have a CEL light while I am driving down the road but it will appear when I come to a stop and when idling at a light or stop sign but goes away once I start accelerating again. After everything I tried, I had no luck with the stalling issue and it would continue to stall. So I ended up driving my other vehicle for a couple of months while meantime looking for someone that can maybe figure out why I'm having this issue.. After a couple of months passed by I decided to myself, I wanted to take the car for a drive and see if the issue was still there, even though I knew it would be. It was now winter when I did this so it was a lot colder outside than a couple of months ago from when I last drove it. That day I took the car for a drive and it found it so strange that the car did not stall not once.. It was about 20-33 degrees Fahrenheit outside compared to summertime when it was 55-80 degrees outside.. I drove my car all day with no issues of stalling at all.. I continued to drive the car for a couple of days after which led to me driving the car full time with no issues at all. From there I ended up driving my car all of the winter because throughout the whole winter because it was never over 40 degrees Fahrenheit outside which meant my car wouldn't stall.. My car only stalls when it is over 40-50 degrees outside. but if it stays under 50 degrees outside I have no issues whatsoever. The car has an aftermarket turbo and intercooler and whoever had the car before me had done a lot of work on the car and from looking at the car it seems like whoever had the car before me had this car as a project or has unfinished work on the car for sure because I found out the car has some sort of tune currently on it and what makes me think this is because of what I had discovered about 2 months ago
What I found out a couple of months ago is something that I still think is bizarre and everyone thought I was dumb or just didn't know what I was talking about until I showed them and proved to them that I wasn't dumb.. So the cruise control switch on the left side of the steering wheel. You can flick the switch forward or you can flick the switch backward. It absolutely blew my mind and my jaw dropped when I flicked the switch forwards while accelerating from a stop because it threw my head in the seat and the car instantly launches and accelerates extremely quick.. but when you flick the switch back the car will not launch or accelerate nowhere near or even close to how it does when the switch is flicked forward. It is honestly mind-boggling and just insane the difference is between when the switch is forwards or back.. Everyone I have shown this feels the same way..

Summer is not far around the corner from now and I really want to get this issue fixed before it becomes 50+ degrees every day and I will be unable to drive my vehicle.. If anyone knows what this might be or sounds like please let me know I would seriously appreciate it.

[TattooDave]

Hello there. You might have a vacuum leak somewhere causing your car to die at idle. Also a stuck diverter valve, or (an aftermarket "blow off valve" if someone put one of those on) can cause similar problems when the car de accelerates as the pressure charge from the turbo can't be relieved. Have you run a scan on your car yet with a VAG-Com program or an OBD2 reader to pull any codes?
As for the switch giving you more power when you flick it back and forth, yes it is a thing lol. Some aftermarket tunes depending on the manufacturer use this to go from stock to hot on the tune of the ECU. Sometimes it goes from a 93octane to an e85 fuel tune, all depends on who and how it's tuned. On that note, does the car happen to stall when that switch is in one direction and not the other?

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The switch's direction has no effect on the stalling at all.. The car still has the factory stock diverter valve, I really wanted to put an aftermarket Blow off valve so many times before but I still haven't till this day because of a few reasons.. One reason being the diverter valve recirculates the air back into the intake I'm pretty sure, and if I was to put a Blow off valve which would vent that air into the atmosphere instead of back into the intake then I'm almost certain that would cause the car to run Rich because the ECU that would still be expecting that air going back into the intake.

I have a live data OBD2 scanner I picked up from O'reilly's for like $200, When I run the scanner on the car I get an Idle Air Control Valve, and just a couple of days ago I got a Mass Airflow Sensor code as well but that's new.. I have had this IAC code for a while now though and I have done a lot of research and asking around but I still am unsure exactly where the Idle Air Control Valve is even located.. I believe it is inside the Throttle Body but again I am not 100% sure.

And with this whole switch situation causes me a whole lot of stress.. Because when I started realizing that the switch was a tune or some sort I started really worrying because I don't know too much when it comes to that side of things and I am the type to get very overwhelmed and panic a lot lol.. I am not sure how to go about addressing this situation, I know obviously I should start calling some tune shops and start to explain my story and hopefully find someone out there that will know what to do or how to go about it. I am not sure if this isn't even a problem at all and someone that knows what they are doing is able to go in and figure out what tune and whatever else has been done before to the ECU.. Or if it will be a somewhat tricky situation on having to figure out what to do next.. Hopefully, I am just overthinking it.. But one thing I do know for sure is that there is something going wrong somewhere because yes the switch definitely will go back and forth between 2 different "modes" or "profiles" of driving.. But there are times where the car is soo much faster upon pressing the throttle, I'm not talking about the switch, yes the switch still makes a huge difference but with that aside... There are sometimes where the car just has so much more power and just starts sailing out of nowhere. It is very random and has no reoccurring patterns at all, but just sometimes out of the blue the car will just be so much quicker and sometimes it will last for a while and sometimes it won't last very long at all unfortunately.. It's very upsetting because I feel like it is so hard for me to explain because I'm sure I sound just crazy but when you are sitting in the car it's actually insane how the car can go from being very quick to being A LOT less quick..

-I tried really hard to make that make sense, Thank you very much!

[Splash..]

Hello there. You might have a vacuum leak somewhere causing your car to die at idle. Also a stuck diverter valve, or (an aftermarket "blow off valve" if someone put one of those on) can cause similar problems when the car de accelerates as the pressure charge from the turbo can't be relieved. Have you run a scan on your car yet with a VAG-Com program or an OBD2 reader to pull any codes?
As for the switch giving you more power when you flick it back and forth, yes it is a thing lol. Some aftermarket tunes depending on the manufacturer use this to go from stock to hot on the tune of the ECU. Sometimes it goes from a 93octane to an e85 fuel tune, all depends on who and how it's tuned. On that note, does the car happen to stall when that switch is in one direction and not the other?

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No aftermarket BOV.. It has its stock diverted valve.. And i thought it might be a vacuum leak at first but when it’s stalling it stalls when de accelerating and accelerating.. It’ll cut out and jerk to a stop when trying to accelerate that’s what makes me think it is a fuel issue..


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