Poor running slight misfire

[djshort_stuff]

Hello to all, would anyone have a few ideas as to the prolems im having with my 1.8mk4 golf gti 20v turbo?
What happened at first was it developed a slight misfire that was intermitten and the temp gague wasnt quite getting up to 90 so i searched and decided time for new thermostat and coolant and then a trip to the garage for them to take alook at the misfire, so thermostat changed now heats up lovely, then the misfire started to happen all the time the garage told me the misfire was the coilpack, so they tried changing it but with no luck it still has the misfire, then they said they plugged in there comp and got a fault reading of 'ECU disconnected' and told me that it now needs a new ecu? Does this sound right? im quite a novice at this car stuff. if it does sound wright any suggestions on my next step ive heard ecu, s are expensive n i dont wana change it if thats not the problem, if anyone could help i would reallu appreciate it
Cheers
Dan      

[dai-cymru]

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=94783.0

unusual for a ecu to fail though, did they say it could be wiring to/from the ecu rather than the ecu itself?

[djshort_stuff]

Thing is that if the ecu wasnt working would they be able to connect to it to get the fault code in the 1st place? thanks very much for the link my car has all the symptoms listed for the faulty maff just tried unplugging the maff and run it for a couple of mins no difference? should i take it for a longer drive?

[dai-cymru]

normally unplugging the maf will work at idle if thats the fault but it wont hurt to try a short drive (the engine management light will come on cos maf is unplugged) if the ecu is faulty it may have trouble giving codes.

[Rhyso]

Thing is that if the ecu wasnt working would they be able to connect to it to get the fault code in the 1st place? thanks very much for the link my car has all the symptoms listed for the faulty maff just tried unplugging the maff and run it for a couple of mins no difference? should i take it for a longer drive?

if the ECU was dead then they wouldn't get any fault codes for the engine - what they got sounds more like they couldn't connect; had the same problem with Ivor's car recently but that was down to a fuse - also it wouldn't start full stop!!

the fact you can drive your car means the ECU is fine - as Dai has said its extremely unlikely the ECUi has died - more likely an intermittent fault in the loom leading to the ECU possibly 

it could be the injector loom??

how many coilpacks did they change?? there could have been problems with a couple of coilpacks so changing just one may not cure the problem

[vapor matt]

You could try the temp sender, as its a dual sender. it not only gives temp gauge reading, it also tells the ECU the fuel mixture depending on temp. if the ECU temp side of the sender has gone faulty or intermitant. that can give poor idle, misfires at any given time.

[djshort_stuff]

Right thanks for your help guys, ive looked at all that you suggested but its still got the misfire spoke to vw and they seem to think its not an ECU fault but cant tell me anymore without pluggin her in to there comp. Ive been doing lots of research and quite a few people have had the same problem, the solution seems to be what is called an ignition amp module part no. 4D0950351 which is a small black thingy (not technical name) on the side of the airbox has two leads which plug in to it, £150 from the stealers. Has anyone else heard of this and any ideas where i might be able to pick 1 up cheap?
cheers