strange judder, noise and smoke.

[Tonkatoy]

Hi,
Been nearly a year now of trouble free driving and loving the car (even though there is always the nagging in my mind it's a B6)

Friday, I drove from Plymouth to Herefordshire with no snags at all. Today driving back I was on the slip road to the M50 and noticed a slight vibration and a faint noise (bit like an exhaust leak) when accelerating. At first I thought maybe strange road surface and the strong with blowing something loose. As soon as I got to a steady speed it eased up a bit. Tried accelerating hard again and the noise and vibration occurred again and I also notice some smoke in the rear view mirror.

Stopped at the next service station and opened the window and when accelerating at any speed the vibration/judder was quite pronounced. Parked the car and at idle everything is OK. but if the accelerator is pressed the engine feels rough and the noise is there. It feels a bit like one cylinder is not firing but there does not appear to be any discernible loss of power.

I have done a search of the threads on here and the common denominator seems to be the EGR valve, but no-one has ever mentioned the noise.

Anyway, I thought *no swearing* it, switched it to battleoveride and got back and the problem is no worse or better however, I did notice it struggled a bit up steep fast hills (Exeter).

I don't have VCDS but if it saves taking it to a garage (and money) I will get one.

Has anyone come across this before?

It is a 1.9 B6 with a BXE engine.