ive been trying like a mad man to fix the crap the previous owner did to my s5 turbo for 3 years now and with no real car knowledge its been...difficult. so ive been working on trying to pass smog lately and after replacing the smog pump and some random hoses i tried to drive it down to the muffler shop for some welding and a check over but whenever i shift into 2nd i lose all power same with 3rd i didnt try higher than that though. so i quickly turned it around and put it back in my driveway let it sit, turned it off and now theres a smell ive never smelt before. like i said i have almost no car knowledge so i dont know what the smell is. thanks for looking.

 

Look for smoke or something melted. Also, the only role gearing plays in power delivery is torque multiplication. So power loss will be present in all gears. First gear is obviously very short, so it's possible you're just not noticing it there too. The most common cause of power loss on an S5 is MOP-related limp mode: http://www.johnr.com/cpucodes.html. Codes 20, 26, 27 or 37.

 

there was no smoke and i dont see anything thats melted or burnt.
also maybe i described power loss wrong. when i shifted to 2nd the needle just dropped and the car shuttered and came close to stalling but if i barely let it just glide into second it kinda worked. i know my description is probably terrible but i really need my car to work again!