I just got this completly stock 1994 A4 TA. I drove it 1200 miles without a problem and then all the sudden it started to have some issues.
It is really hard to start. You have to really stay on the key and normally stop and try again for it to even start. I think it could possibly be the fuel pump. When people say to listen for it to prime before start up, what does that sound like? Lets say I don't hear it prime, would that mean that it needs to be replaced?

Next problem, twice the car has completly shut down (ie NO power) while driving. The first time it happened at about 50mph and just came right back on, like it didn't miss a beat. The second time occured when I was stopping. It shut down (no power, no lights, NOTHING) and took about two minutes before it would start. The weird thing is just recently, the battery guage has become very irradict (sp) sometimes. Most of the time, the guage sits just above 13 and doesn't move. But sometimes it bounces (going up and down about 3 levels) around at 8 while I am driving.
Could the two of these problems be related? Also, I have a brake light on the dash that stays lit, starts to flash, stops flashing, goes back to just lit and then go away. Could this be the culprit? I really doubt it. I am going to bleed the brake system this weekend as i believe this was caused due to an improper or lack of bleeding after the brake job the previous owner did about 2000 miles ago.

 

I don't really have an answer to this, but I want to TTT it because I'm having almost exactly the same problem. However, my battery guage is not jumping around, and I don't have a brake light on. I'm stumped and would like to know if anybody has a solution. It sucks to have to try to maneuver through traffic and try to get into a parking lot when the car shuts off going 60 mph, not to mention how safe it is! So here's a TTT for both of us.

 

Check your battery terminals, I know it sounds dumb but my mom was having that problem on her minivan.... I pop the hood one day and the terminals were so lose I dont know how the car even ran

 

Well, I may have figured it out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but so far the car is running like a bat out of hell and not hesitating at all! I went to NAPA and got 2 bottles of SeaFoam. I haven't used the one in the engine oil yet, but I used the one in the gas tank, went and drove the hell out of it sputtering and all, came home and let it sit, and then when I got back in it a few hours later, it ran like a champ. Hasn't pulled to 6500 rpms like this in quite a while! Anyway, for 5 dollars, it's worth a try right? Hope this helps Tex.

 

it sounds like an alternator problem to me or a loose battery wire check that and see if you solve your problem.

 

That is all it took on my car. A loose positive battery cable. This completly solved my problems.