starting problem with Audi 90

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Hi guys, I have a 95 Audi 90 with about 150,000 miles on it. I love my car dearly, and have gotten pretty stubborn about it, shelling out way too much money to keep her running. Recently I've had some trouble that the shop hasn't been able to find the problem. Any ideas that you might have would be greatly appreciated!

For the past two months my car has only been starting intermittently. There hasn't really been a rhyme or reason to it. Some days I can make several stops without a problem. Other days I'll drive a mile and stop for a minute, come out and it won't start. Sometimes jiggling the gear knob into neutral would get it to start right up. Sometimes even that wouldn't help.

I took it to the mechanic, they spent two days checking everything- focusing on the starter. They couldn't duplicate the problem and so they sent it back to me saying it was fine. The problem started over again and I looked up the problem online. I figured it was the neutral safety switch, the mechanic replaced it and the problem continued.

I returned to the mechanic yet again, and now they say it's the starter, even though they ruled it out originally. I'm not too sure about this. They seem to be ignoring a few other "symptoms":

- The last time I drove the car, after removing the emergency brake, the brake light continued to be illuminated on the dash.

- The chime that indicates the lights are on/doors is open with key in ignition, etc. was chiming when the car wouldn't start the last time, even though the lights were off and the door was closed.

- Recently a strange rattle/loud noise is heard when I am driving slowly. This started after the starter problem.

- When I slow down abruptly the car hesitates and kind of "hiccups" before accelerating again. Sometimes this can be quite worrisome as when I hit the accelerator it pauses then the whole car shakes before it accelerates.

-Only once or twice the car has seemed to change gears on it's own for no reason while I was driving at moderate speed. It's an automatic, but it felt like the car was in 4th or 5th and should have been in 4th or 5th and just dropped into 3rd for no reason.

Please post if you have any ideas, what any of this might be a symptom of. I'd like to have something to tell the mechanic to look at as they can't find anything wrong with the car but obviously something isn't right. Please help me save my beloved 90! Thanks so much!