97 cabrio flooding no codes

1997 Cabrio 2.0 125k miles. All orignal and has been a awesome car for last two years without any problems. The car started starting hard in the morning but then would run great all day. Then the car started misfiring badly and a lovley fuel smell became aparant and it died and I had it towed home. All this happens and the computer is kicking no codes. I unhooked the cat thinking maybe it or the muffler was plugged but no change. We have not had rain in almost a month so I know it is not moisture. Fuel pressure is 60psi. Timing belt has not jumped, Spark is going to all plugs. I finally went with my gut feeling and replaced the coolant temp sensor and the plugs. Car fires right up and seems to run great. Next day and a half tank of fuel ! I can feel the plugs fouling out and now two days later car is again sitting in my garage. I have a OBDII scanner and again no codes. I read in another post about the throttle body going bad. I did have a code over two years ago that the VW dealer said was throttle body. They cleaned it, the light went out and the car never missed a beat. Even when the light was on for that the car ran awesome. Sorry for length but I wanted to give an accurate description.

If you can access a scanner with datastream capability you should look at the oxygen sensor readings, particularly the upstream one.

ok.. I deceided to start from scratch as I must have missed something... I went back to my gut and unhooked the exhaust at the converter flange again( much easier with the stainless bolts I just put in thter) EUREKA bits and pieces of converter staring at me.. To make sure this is my problem I try to start the car before hooking up the exhaust.. The car does nothing.. ok.... I again put my trusty timing light on the coil wire.. blink blink it goes crazy, but the #1 wire reads nothing.... I pull off the cap and rotor and OMG a friggen chunk of the carbon button that connects the rotor to the cap is gone.. I just installed a new VW cap and rotor.. and the car still will not fire.. and now I have no fire from the coil. what is going on here ?? Now after I stop cranking over the motor the timing light flashes one or two times and the motor pops. How on earth could this many things go wrong at once ? and suggestions are welcome

How on earth could this many things go wrong at once ?

uhh.... its a vw