so here's what happened....
 

So the other night i'm coming down a hill and start braking before some upcoming railroad tracks. I cross the railroad tracks and push down on the pedal.....then when hitting 3K rpms, the engine felt like it stuttered and the CEL started flashing. After that happened, i put it in neutral and the CEL went away.....and now i've driven about 120 miles since then and nothing has come on and the car seems to be driving pretty healthy. Any thought on what this might be? coilpacks? plugs?

how was your gas? were you empty, same thing happend to me yesterday, xept the light didnt go on... i filled up and everything is fine. (btw it happend to me racing an s4 doing about 100, it was realllllly wierd, around 4.5k rpm i think)

nope, there was enough gas in the tank.....it was just like sudden engine hesitation and roughness

maybe a wire from your maf sensor is broken internally. sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt. same thing happend to me, but i took it to the sutoshop right away. costed 130 to find where the wire split and to fix it. do you have a cold air intake by the way?

nope, stock air filter with K&N panel......is it possible to clean the MAF

not to my knowledge, but i could be wrong.

maybe that rear intake vacum hose got loose?

do you think the rear vac hose would throw the CEL?

If the CEL started flashing, it was probably a coil pack. Especially since you have a 99.

i was sort of leaning that way but it didn't keep running harshly, just a matter of maybe 3 seconds of stalling

I'v taken my MAF apart when I muffed it up installing my CAI. There are 3 metal prongs that must make contact with 3 contact points inside the sensor for it to function properly. As long as the prongs make contact it will work fine.