Volkswagen Woes

[Nomad]

I drive a '91 Volkswagen and it appears to be in its last throes so to speak. It's a manual, but it won't stay at constant RPMs when driving, making it jerk around all over the place and it tries to stall. It's probably a transmission problem since it only does it while driving.

I'm confused as to if I want to get this repaired or not though. I've already dumped about $150 getting the starter fixed, and even if I do get this fixed, I get the feeling something else will go bad on it. However, it would be really annoying not to have a car again. I got my license over Labor Day weekend and I didn't realize how nice it was to be self-mobile until I lost it basically.

Any suggestions on if I should repair or ditch? If ditch, what would be the best way to go about getting rid of it?

[Leonardo]

Whoa there, how's about some more information:

model name
vintage
options
body style
general condition of vehicle
mileage

[Nomad]

Name and Year: Volkswagen 1991 Carat, 5-Speed manual
Options: Power windows (Doesn't work), air-conditioning (Doesn't work), power locks (Doesn't work), cassette player.
Body style: Four-door sedan
Miles: About 60k
Condition: Good/Decent

[Clutch]

To be honest with you, I think you will be better off getting it fixed. Just think that even if you have to spend about say $300 to get it fixed, that will save you in the long run when you get a new car. I'm sure in your mind you are thinking that something else will go wrong with it, that is normal, but don't think on the bad side of things. You might get it fixed, and it last you another year or two until you decide it is time to move on to another car.

I would at least see about getting it looked at to see what is wrong, and how much it would cost to get it fixed. Once you do that, then let us know and we can tell you more I'm sure.

Now if you already have it in your head that you want to get rid of it, it will be very hard to change your mind. But I would at least take it in to see what it is, and how much it would cost to get it fixed.

[Nomad]

Now if you already have it in your head that you want to get rid of it, it will be very hard to change your mind. But I would at least take it in to see what it is, and how much it would cost to get it fixed.

Being that I'm saving for college, a new car is really out of the question--although I wouldn't mind--but to have this looked at it's going to cost probably about $150.

[NiGHTS]

I'm sure you've already thought about it, but what about picking up some extra jobs for the work you do with 3D applications? If it can't cover the cost of a new(er) used car, at least the repair of this car, right?

College is one large pain in the ass financially, however.

[Leonardo]

Find a mechanic with a good reputation for foreign cars - VW if possible. Spend the money: have the mechanic thoroughly inspect and drive the car. Tell him how long you wish to keep the car and ask for his recommendations/estimate. At 60K - and it's paid for, it might be financially very foolish to get rid of your car. For the little money you have to spend, it's quite likely that if you traded you end up with vehicle much less roadworthy than the one already sitting in your driveway.

[Gargoyle]

My new policy is to give a used car one chance with a major repair, and ditch it the next time a major repair comes up. Also, never pay close to the value of the car for a repair.

I ended up spending more than the value of my Explorer fixing the transmission and brakes, only to have the head gasket go out for the second time. Talk about a money pit. It was totally foolish and I won't do it again. I'm also a bit burned out on Fords now, but I digress.

At any rate, I think it's worth having checked out, but look around for a place with an affordable hourly rate. If they quote you an uber-expensive repair, then cut your losses and get another beater car and try your luck again.

[profdlp]

...At 60K - and it's paid for, it might be financially very foolish to get rid of your car...
Agreed.

Since a new car is obviously not an option, you can either:

A) Get this one fixed
B) Trade it in on another older car (potentially with worse problems than the one you have now)
C) Buy a bus pass and a nice pair of walking shoes

If it were my choice I know which one I'd pick. :cool:

[MAGIC]

a 91 with 60k on it? did the previous owner forget they had a car for 5 years? :confused: i would get it repaired

[Nightwolf]

[V][AGIC']a 91 with 60k on it? did the previous owner forget they had a car for 5 years? :confused: i would get it repaired
My '79 F-150 only has 65k on it. Sounds like a head problem, maybe the gasket. I'm sure your losing a lot of compression.

[Nomad]

[V][AGIC']a 91 with 60k on it? did the previous owner forget they had a car for 5 years? :confused: i would get it repaired

It was my mom's and she barely drove anywhere. A lot of the problems that have come out of this car is from the fact that until me it had been on the freeway like once a year, and was driven maybe once a week.

The transmission was completely rebuilt about a year ago, from a place whose work was not only shady and unsatisfactory, but they kept it for an absurd amount of time.

I'm sure you've already thought about it, but what about picking up some extra jobs for the work you do with 3D applications? If it can't cover the cost of a new(er) used car, at least the repair of this car, right?

I'm already worked through the teeth, between school and work I get about an hour of time where I get to choose what I want to do, if I willingly let go of that I'd probably go insane.

[MAGIC]

My '79 F-150 only has 65k on it. Sounds like a head problem, maybe the gasket. I'm sure your losing a lot of compression.
my old 92 civic 5spd had 260k on it and i still sold it running for 150 bucks... i guess if you live close to all your errands you would drive a lot less... i drive 20mi to work and back every day, and 13mi to school and back regularly :bawling:

[pseudonym]

From the symptoms you are telling it sounds like it could be a fuel system problem. It will idle fine if it can pull enough fuel but at speed it cannot. It might just be a fuel filter of all things.

[GnomeWizardd]

shoot my 2005 civic has 15k on it already

[TheBaron]

or fuel pump

[profdlp]

My '79 F-150 only has 65k on it. Sounds like a head problem, maybe the gasket. I'm sure your losing a lot of compression.
Two good comments. :)

Some people drive more than others. It's not helping Nomad to turn this solely into a mileage comparison thread. If you know anything about car repair why not follow Nightwolf's lead and try to offer some helpful advice, too?

Nomad, if you can find a place that will do a compression check for a (reasonable) flat-fee, it would at least give some indication as to the seriousness of the problem. If the engine is fine you might have someone more reputable than the last outfit check your transmission (again).

If the engine looks to need major work, coupled with the uncertainty over the previous transmission repair, I might be inclined to cut my losses and look into replacing the car.


From the symptoms you are telling it sounds like it could be a fuel system problem. It will idle fine if it can pull enough fuel but at speed it cannot. It might just be a fuel filter of all things.
Another good suggestion. Even if that doesn't do the trick it will only cost you about five bucks to try it. :thumbsup:

[madmat]

It could also need new plug wires, my Buick ran fine at idle but under load it missed like crazy...easy way to test it is to put the parking brake on, open the hood, start the engine and rev it a bit then slip the clutch in a higher gear (like 4th) slightly to load the egine down all the while having someone look at the engine. You'll have to do this at night, if the plug wires are bad you'll see a corona of spark around either the wires where they cross any metal parts or around where they plug into the distributer cap.

Make certain to just slip the clutch enough to lug the engine down a bit, say from 3000 rpm to about 2000 rpm, don't dump it and only slip it for a few seconds at a time, just enough to get the engine to start chugging and to try to sight in any spark jumps.

A set of plugs will also cause that problem but I'll assume you've changed them already and no, when it's having issues with plugs or wires it won't cause the service engine soon light to go off.

[TheBaron]

since you seem to be monetarily pressed, and you own a larger vehicle, a fantastic investment would be to go get a repair manual and set about learning how to diagnose and fix these things yourself. you'll save yourself money, and you'll actually learn something. the only thing you won't save yourself is time (the first time you do something always takes FOREVER, even an oil change)

[Jimborae]

What's the European name for a Carat?? Jetta or Passat I'd imagine. If so find one of the many forums for it & ask advise there.

Is it fuel injected or carburetor?
Do the revs just cut out & die or is it more of misfire & it has no power although it tries?
What does it do at idle & with foot flat to the floor.

Speaking as a VW owner this sounds like a fueling or ignition problem.

[Jengo]

I say at least take it to get checked and ask them for an estimate (dont know is someone has already said this cause i didnt read the whole thread)

I dont think its the tranny, just take it somewhere reputible and ask for an estimate. THEN make your decision.

[TheSmJ]

What's the European name for a Carat?? Jetta or Passat I'd imagine.

In the US we have both Jettas and Passats, so I don't think thats what the EU equiv of a Carat is.

You could take it to your highschool and have the auto mechanic students look at it and diagnose it for free. They should have all the scan tools and other tests at their disposal with a teacher's supervision.

I used to do this with all of my family's cars while I was in highschool, but I was also the student doing the work in the first place. :cool:

[Buddy J]

A Carat is a Jetta variant. I bet it's the 1.8L 8v engine, like this one:
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2216958
Take it to any watercooled VW place and they'll get it sorted. That engine has been around and powered all sorts of Dubs since the late 70s IIRC, and any import shop should be VERY familiar with it. And the plus side is parts are cheap.

Is it making any odd sounds, rattles or the like? Does the problem happen when you're accelerating, decelerating, cruising or when you're at idle, does it hunt? When was the last time you changed the fuel filter?

[Nomad]

I'm going to call a place today that specializes in Volkswagens that isn't too far from here, I'll just have them run a full diagnostic pretty much and see what they think could or should be done. I would do this myself, but it's a little over my head, the starter I pretty much did myself--which was annoying because on Jetta's it is integral to the engine mount.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[Leonardo]

Please let us know how it goes. I think the other posters are like me - we want you to be driving what will serve you the best for transportation and for personal finances. Trust me, I could have used some solid advice when I was your age. The money I blew on a junk heap... :shakehead

[profdlp]

...Trust me, I could have used some solid advice when I was your age. The money I blew on a junk heap... :shakehead
You and me both, brother. :rolleyes:

If I had every dollar back I ever spent on a crapmobile I could buy the hottest car in town and hire a full-time mechanic to keep it in top shape.

One of them didn't even make it to the DMV for the title transfer! ;D

[CB]

One thing that's important. If you go to a mechanic that you haven't been to before, that you're not sure you can trust. Make sure to tell them not to do anything until after they talk to you about it. Diagnostic only. A lot of places (especially chains like AAMCO or some-such will just do the work that they deem necissary, and charge you for it without asking first. Get it in writing if you think they'll go for it.

This has happened to me a couple of time, and I make sure to be very clear about it now.

This happened last when my mechanic was out for a few months when his garage roof callapsed under snow weight... I took my car to CarX to look at the A/C sytem to see if they could see anything obviously wrong. I told the guy, "I don't want you to do any work more than $30 without calling me first and getting my okay." He agreed, so I let it go at that.

I called him the next day and he told me that he had just finished flushing the system and replacing it with dyed coolant, and that would be $170 please...

I had some angry words for that fellow...

[Nomad]

Thread resurrection:

Well, I made the decision to take it in and have a diagnostic run on it after I told them the problem and that it was leaking some mystery fluid. The only thing the mechanic found wrong was that there was a bolt missing from the motor mount and a bolt from the bracket that supports it. We knew the bracket was missing a bolt since it was bent at the top and you couldn't get a new one in and we couldn't bend it back, it had been this way for a long time. The mechanic believed that this combination would cause the car to act the way it was. He was never able to duplicate the problem with the car though as I and my parents had while driving it.

When I got the car back two days ago, it ran fine for an entire day, I had no problems with the car and it ran much smoother. However, yesterday when I went to pick up a friend of mine I thought the car bucked like it did when it was broken, driving back it got much worse and I could tell the problem had not been fixed at all, it also continues to leak some clearish fluid that doesn't smell like oil or gas. So basically we're back to square one.

[Leonardo]

clearish fluid that doesn't smell like oil or gas Check your brake master cylinder and each brake line.

[Nomad]

Check your brake master cylinder and each brake line.

That wouldn't affect the rather sporradic driveability of the car though, would it?

[profdlp]

That wouldn't affect the rather sporradic driveability of the car though, would it?
Most (probably all) brakes are self-adjusting to compensate for wear on the brake pads. If your fluid levels are off it could cause them to overcompensate and want to lock up on you, causing the chugga-chugga action.

[Buddy J]

Most (probably all) brakes are self-adjusting to compensate for wear on the brake pads. If your fluid levels are off it could cause them to overcompensate and want to lock up on you, causing the chugga-chugga action.

Sorry prof, but brake "compensation" won't cause a chugga-chugga action while driving unless you have a leaking softline or caliper and you are trying to brake. If you are off the brakes, the system isn't doing anything (unless you are in a new Mercedes or any car that uses a pre-presurization system)

A broken/disconnected motor mount will cause a chugga-chugga problem. It happened in my buddie's Tercel just a few weeks ago. In a FWD car, the engine is mounted in a manner that a broken front or rear mount will cause the motor to vibrate forward and back when you apply throttle or are braking. If it's bad, even at idle. I think you should look at having your mounts replaced. :thumbsup:

[Nomad]

A broken/disconnected motor mount will cause a chugga-chugga problem. It happened in my buddie's Tercel just a few weeks ago. In a FWD car, the engine is mounted in a manner that a broken front or rear mount will cause the motor to vibrate forward and back when you apply throttle or are braking. If it's bad, even at idle. I think you should look at having your mounts replaced. :thumbsup:

The front motor mount was replaced and all the bolts surrounding it.

[Leonardo]

The reason I suggested brakes was because of the fluid description you provided. Doesn't smell like petroleum...is clear (unless completely worn out).

[madmat]

Check your clutch master cylinder and slave cylinder if it's a standard, you might also have a look at the clutch itself.

[GHoosdum]

OK. I don't mean to be an ass, but since it's a standard, check your driving style, and the adjustment of the clutch. The car will jerk around and be sporadic if you have the clutch pedal pushed in just too much or just too little sometimes, and different cars have different points at which the clutch will catch. I think this also varies a bit as the clutch wears. Does most of the jerking around happen while shifting?

//edit: Also, check on the wear pattern of the clutch pad. Usually when someone learns to drive a manual trans, they tend to mess up the clutch pad of the car they learn on (unless they are a true natural) - the pad heats up and cools down, causing it to warp. This will cause it to engage unevenly - which will lead to the car jerking around. If anyone in your family learned to drive stick on this car, that may be something to look in to.

[gibbonsl]

[V][AGIC']my old 92 civic 5spd had 260k on it and i still sold it running for 150 bucks... i guess if you live close to all your errands you would drive a lot less... i drive 20mi to work and back every day, and 13mi to school and back regularly :bawling:


at least it is not 50 miles round trip to work

or 160 right now(damn runway rebiuld)

[Clutch]

OK. I don't mean to be an ass, but since it's a standard, check your driving style, and the adjustment of the clutch. The car will jerk around and be sporadic if you have the clutch pedal pushed in just too much or just too little sometimes, and different cars have different points at which the clutch will catch. I think this also varies a bit as the clutch wears. Does most of the jerking around happen while shifting?

//edit: Also, check on the wear pattern of the clutch pad. Usually when someone learns to drive a manual trans, they tend to mess up the clutch pad of the car they learn on (unless they are a true natural) - the pad heats up and cools down, causing it to warp. This will cause it to engage unevenly - which will lead to the car jerking around. If anyone in your family learned to drive stick on this car, that may be something to look in to.

You might be on to something Ghoosdum. Manuals can be a true pain in the ass sometimes. I know when I first started driving a stick, the car would jerk all over the damn place. Maybe have someone else drive the car and see how it acts?

EDIT: Nomad: when you say "won't stay at constant RPMs when driving" how high do the RPMs jump? Also do you notice they jump more when shifting? Like if you try to shift without letting up on the gas the rpms will jump until you shift?

[profdlp]

Get out on the highway in top gear so you don't need to use the clutch at all. If you can zip down the road like that with no trouble it would certainly point to the clutch as being the problem.

If that's the case, turn southeast and head down to North Carolina and confront the man. :vimp:

[Clutch]

Get out on the highway in top gear so you don't need to use the clutch at all. If you can zip down the road like that with no trouble it would certainly point to the clutch as being the problem.

If that's the case, turn southeast and head down to North Carolina and confront the man. :vimp:


haha ;D


I'm always home. Whomever wants to bark some tires let me know :thumbsup:

[Nomad]

//edit: Also, check on the wear pattern of the clutch pad. Usually when someone learns to drive a manual trans, they tend to mess up the clutch pad of the car they learn on (unless they are a true natural) - the pad heats up and cools down, causing it to warp. This will cause it to engage unevenly - which will lead to the car jerking around. If anyone in your family learned to drive stick on this car, that may be something to look in to.

I learned to drive the car, but I wasn't brutal with the clutch and the clutch is less than a year old at this point. I know it's not my driving style because it does this to both of my parents who are very experienced at driving a manual. It doesn't do it between gears and has seemingly nothing to do with the clutch, it does it while your foot is simply on the gas pedal. I initially though I may have been tapping the clutch with my foot (I tend to kind of bounce my left foot up and down) but I've eliminated the myself from being the cause of the problem.

When I mean the RPMs jump, let's say I'm driving at 2500 RPMs in any given gear--and I've tested, it does it in any given gear and all ranges of RPMs--the car will all of a sudden jump to 2700 and then go down to 2400 really quickly or it will go from 2500 to 2400 and back to 2500. This happens in literally a split second.

[gibbonsl]

er never mind had to reread the first post

my car did that, bad battery was the cause, shorting out

[Nomad]

er never mind had to reread the first post

my car did that, bad battery was the cause, shorting out

Battery is less than a month old and tested fine. If it's electrical, it's only electrical engine related, nothing else blinks on and off.

[muddocktor]

Do you feel a sudden surge when you see the tach doing this, Nomad? Or are you just going by what the tach is showing? If you aren't physically feeling the surge when this happens (since you have a manual tranny, there is no torque converter to buffer any motor surge), then you possibly have a bad tach sensor on the distributor. If you do feel a physical surge, then something's not right with the carb/fuel injection or maybe computer control module or wiring.

[GHoosdum]

I'm still thinking vacuum leak somewhere. Maybe the mechanic missed something?

[muddocktor]

Yeah, that could be true too, GH. Check the controllers that are vacuum operated too; it could be one of them malfunctioning.

[Nomad]

Do you feel a sudden surge when you see the tach doing this, Nomad? Or are you just going by what the tach is showing? If you aren't physically feeling the surge when this happens (since you have a manual tranny, there is no torque converter to buffer any motor surge), then you possibly have a bad tach sensor on the distributor. If you do feel a physical surge, then something's not right with the carb/fuel injection or maybe computer control module or wiring.

When it does the RPM bump, the car physically bucks, or stutters, almost like it's going to stall for half a second. Sometimes it will only do it once, sometimes it will do it repeatedly right after each other.

[Nightwolf]

Sounds electrical...

[MAGIC]

sounds like electric problem to me, could a bad spark plug wire. you should take it to get checked out before you start buyen crap though. if its something easy enough you can do it yourself

[Nomad]

Well, I got the car back today. It has run fine so far. The problem was a broken wire to the fuel injector that would disconnect once in awhile, causing fuel to not go to the engine, causing the problem.

[Gargoyle]

Glad it's all fixed up. Did the repair cost very much? I'm guessing that the repair was simple, but it might have taken them awhile to find the problem.

[Nomad]

It was $50.

[profdlp]

Overall, that sounds like a very positive outcome.

Glad to hear it. :)

[Clutch]

I'm glad that you got it fixed Nomad. Glad you didn't decide to trash the car either :thumbsup: