Sudden loss of power

[cadoc]

1998 A3 1.8 Automatic

All of a sudden the car has developed a performance drop-off problem.
Whilst I'm rolling along normally, the car sometimes starts to judder and occasionally the engine loses power and nearly stops. I struggle along for a small distance and then it springs back to life.
Has anyone else experienced a similar problem and what's causing it ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dani_B19]

Coil packs! Has one gone or going, you had it on vag com?

 

[Nilz]

Sounds like a coil pack issue, if you do a quick search, you will probably bring up pages of info on it, its a very common problem, however see if you can get it on Vagcom or a similar diagnostic tool, to be sure.

Oh and they are about £30 each from main dealers, only use the original ones as the others are rubbish!!

 

[cadoc]

Unfortunately it's worse than that !
I've taken it to two Audi/VW specialists who've put the car on their diagnostic system and both have them told me that there's a fault with the ECU.
Don't know what to do now. It's an 11 year old car - can i justify spending so much money on a new ECU and then something else goes wrong further down the line ?
Strangely enough for the past week it hasn't played up at all.
Maybe I need to think whether to either ;
a) get it fixed
b) keep driving it 'til it dies
c) part-ex it
d) scrappage ? (not really, I can't afford a brand new car).