Volkswagen - Beetle :: 2003 - Lost Acceleration Suddenly When Driving Down The Freeway
Jun 19, 2012
I have a 2003 new beetle with a manual transmission. It has about 60K miles. I was driving down the freeway (about 60mph steady, not stop and go), and my car suddenly lost all acceleration. Pressing on the gas did not rev the engine. Otherwise, my car was on. I pulled over and put it in first and it still would not go. However, when I turned my car off and back on, it started like a charm and I was able to move and accelerate. .
I took it to the mechanic and they could not find anything wrong with it except that the battery was low. I don't think that could be the problem, could it? I'd hate to bring the car back out on the freeway, but how can I fix it if there's nothing wrong with it.
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The engine of our VW Passat 2000 quit suddenly while driving home on freeway. Night. Rain. We put on the flasher lights as we were slowing while trying to move to the right lane. No shoulder as we we were on a bridge. Do not remember being rammed from behind. Had a new battery installed one month earlier after VW mechanics could find no reason for intermittent non-starting of car which we had been experiencing. They had run "fault codes".
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The door panel came unattached and while i was checking it out the door bulb holder touched some metal and sparked. now windows, power door lock, mirrors do not work. Fuse panel has no symbol for windows...
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Anything that could be causing this.
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My 2001 VW New Beetle has started making a loud, whining noise coming from outside the car along w/ some buzzing whenever I am driving. I find that I have to change gears about 10 miles sooner than I should in order to stop the noise. But now it's happening in 5th gear occasionally too, and of course I can't go to a higher gear to make it shut up. What could this mean?
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I purchased a 2003 VW Beetle Diesel and have compression leaking from the valve cover around the number 1 cylinder. It does not run or will barely run. Is this a common problem and what could cause this. i haven't tried anything yet.
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My 2005 GTI has been decelerating while I'm driving on a certain section of the freeway. It's a steady incline for about 1/2 a mile, the altitude changes (my ears tend to pop). The car starts to decelerate, I take my foot off the pedal for a couple of seconds and then press the accelerator and it's usually fine.
However, a couple of weeks ago it totally stalled out on the freeway, it restarted fine. I took it into the shop the next day, my mechanic is not 100% sure what the problem is, he replaced the crankshaft sensor. Turns out it's not the source of the problem, I am still decelerating on the freeway. I had a tune-up and new battery installed a month ago, so I don't know what the problem is.
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Why my 2004 Jetta 1.8T Stalls out while Driving? It usually happens while on the Freeway, 60-70 Mph, I Coast to the Shoulder then it starts back up again...
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Okay, So this has happened to me about five times now over the past year or so. I will be driving and my car will literally shut off. yesterday, I was driving on the freeway and was just cruising at 75mph when all of a sudden out of no where my car makes a big jolt and then the rpm's go from around 3k to 0. I have had this in the shop for this problem many times and no one can really seem to figure out what is wrong. when my car shuts off while im driving, the oil light comes on, traction control light comes on, as well as the battery light. What's even more weird about this problem is once the car stops, if i try to start it right away it wont fire up... It will just roll over. But. if I wait for a while the car starts and drives normal with all the lights off. This is not only annoying but very dangerous.
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My problem is on wed I was driving my car,when I suddenly lost acceleration power, after pulling over to the side of the road I turned off the car and restarted it. However I still had the same problem with acceleration. After a while of trying to get the car to start I called a tow truck and got it towed to the dealer. When I got there they told me it was likely and issue with with a sensor on the gas pedal and the engine. At the dealership I started the car to show them the problem however the car drove perfectly and no engine light came on.
They told me it was most like what they said over the phone the sensors. However on xmas eve they called me and left a voicemail saying the rear cat had went out and taken out both rear exhaust manifolds and it would coast $3000 to fix. My question is how can all that happen without the checking engine light coming on in the car and the car showing no problems while i was driving it and how did they miss it when I had took the car in two weeks earlier for regular maintenance and to correct a drive belt issue due to it walking after I purchased a new drive belt and pulley.
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OK so here's the deal. Driving around town @ lower speeds I've yet to have this problem. When driving at freeway speeds seems like between 1/4 tank & reserve all of a sudden the power just drops off . I mean like the ignition has been turned off. No throttle response .. nothing..... just begins coasting & dropping speed. When throttle is depressed... totally dead. This lasts for about 5-10 seconds then after coasting & looking where to pull off the highway all of a sudden the engine kicks back in like nothing ever happened. Where to look for Jetta MK 4 18T Fuel supply problem??
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While I was driving my car suddenly was losing power.I tried to hit the "gas" pedal harder and it didn't react.It stayed on the same gear and after 2-3 seconds it was ok. After 10 minutes it happened again but this time I couldn't do anything. I thought it was the transmission problem so I went into manual mode to shift it down. It didn't work at all - I was shifting down but didn't have power so I had to stop. I stopped put in P turn engine on and everything came back to normal.It's worth mentioning that one time time I had to pull over and I didn't turn the car off. After couple minutes the car started to vibrate and died. I turned on and everything was ok. Fuel filter or is it something else?
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Up until this morning I thought I had almost a perfect car with a potential of lasting for 10 years but this morning, while I was driving on a local road with 35-40mph, so suddenly my car stopped moving and I couldn't even pull over as it completely stopped with no error or any warning/alerts! So, I turned it off and on again, it started working but I was still nervous if it would happen to me again while driving on a freeway but it didn't and I have made to work safely.
Now a question is should I bring it to the dealer today and have them run their diagnostics on their computer to see if anything is wrong with the car engine/ battery/ or anything else or should I just reboot it like we do for computers and go on everytime it happens? It's just little scary to think of its happening during a busy highway driving! I have driven it since July and has about 14K and I have had a good MPG of anywhere between 50 to 60.
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We rebuilt my 1974 VW Beetle (new case, new jugs, mains, oil pump, etc,). With two different gauges we measure 4 pounds of oil pressure, The motor cranks and runs fine. We don't run it long. We ordered another new oil pump. What could be wrong?
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My friend has a 2002 Beetle and the head lamps seems to blow out about every 2-3 months.
I looked at the connectors and there is no water leaking in and the connectors seem sound. Nothing appears obvious by eye. There may be a voltage spike when it is turned on but I don't have a way to test for this.
What is going on and what to do to address this.
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Description of Problem: 1999 mercury cougar 2.5L V6 automatic trans: I was driving down the road and suddenly lost power. The engine was still running but sounded a little rough so i turned it off. then it wouldn't start. After having it parked for a couple months i started looking ant it and notice that the starter is spinning the flexplate but the harmonic balance isn't turning. It does turn by hand with a socket. After talking to a mechanic i was told a used motor would run. He said i broke the crank or timing chain? I thought if it was the timing chain the harmonic balancer would still turn, he didn't agree. and i thought it was unlikely that the crank would just break driving down the road. What it could be? or how i can narrow it down. If the flexplate or bolts broke off would that cause my problem?
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I have a mystery on my hands and am at a complete loss. I have a 1969 Volkswagen Beetle that will not hold an idle. It will start up just fine and as long as you have your foot on the gas, it will stay alive. As soon as you let off the car sputters and dies. Another symptom is that the is a miss in the engine, not sure if the two are related or need to time it and then check on the idle. Here is what I have done in an attempt to fix the issue:
I have been able to adjust the idle to get it to stay alive for about 30 seconds longer, but no matter ho much I adjust it still struggles and dies. Idles very rough no matter what.
Cleaned the carb (not a rebuild or anything, but just gave it a real good spray of cleaner)
Replaced the condenser and points (adjusted the points properly etc.)
Replaced and gapped the spark plugs
Replaced the idle cutoff solenoid
Adjusted the automatic choke
Cleaned the carb (not a rebuild or anything, but just gave it a real good spray of cleaner)
Some have suggested a vacuum leak, and i know i have to put some sort of solution on the vacuum connections, but since I am relatively new to the world of VW beetles I am not quite sure where those are and what to put on and what to do if there is a leak.
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I have a 2002 VW Beetle with a failing transmission at fewer than 60,000 miles, apparently one of the ones made in Mexico. VW has already replaced the catalytic converter. There is a lot of online complaining about the transmission issue and about the catalytic converter. The car is in otherwise good condition or seems to be. Would it be a good or bad investment to replace the transmission for about $2400?
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I own a 2007 VW Beetle (automatic) that I bought brand new and it currently has 85,500 miles on it. In the past year or so, I feel like this car has become even more of a money pit than it was to begin with (note to readers: do not buy a Volkswagen unless you are a millionaire!). I have one major concern and looking to see what others know or have experienced with this...
I got an 80,000 mile service done on my car towards the end of April. The mileage on my car was around 82,500, I think. The oil is synthetic and the dealer always recommends having the oil changed every 10,000 miles. The handy little sticker in my car indicated that I change the oil at 92,500. Fast forward to the end of June... check engine light came on though there was no difference in the driving of the car. I am hypersensitive about my car acting differently or driving oddly because I know how VW will gouge my wallet! I took the car to have the code read and it came back "Air Injection" which of course can be a multitude of things. I don't like paying people $100 just to tell me what's wrong with my car and not have that $100 apply to repairs. So, I took my car to a German car speciality shop. They ran diagnostics and told me that it was the Air Pump Injection Valve. A quick $450 later and my car is off and on the road.
Small problem... it wasn't driving well AT ALL. No check engine light but I KNEW there was something wrong. Car would "rev" or drive in overdrive until it switched gears which always happened at a higher RPM than usual. Sometimes when I started off from a stop, I would notice a "slip" in the engine/transmission (pardon me but I don't really know that much about cars). Other times, usually when turning, I would notice a knocking noise coming from under the hood. The car was literally SHAKING. Not vibrating. I know what a tire balance looks like - steering wheel shaking usually at higher speeds (60+), but that is NOT what this felt like. The steering wheel would be still, but the car itself shaking. This happened only at lower speeds (average 40 mph - I drive almost exclusively on city roads).
SO.. off I go back to the shop. This time I decided to return to the VW Dealership because I trust that they really do know what's wrong even if they overcharge you. They told me that there was very little OIL in the car which was causing the engine to knock. That is so puzzling since I had only driven 3,000 miles since my last oil change. I promptly asked them to check for a leak to which they replied that they already did. No oil leak. The reply I got as to why it would consume that much oil was "sometimes the level of oil consumption just increases." HMMMMMM.....
My car is driving very well now that oil has been added. No knocking. No slipping. No shaking (magic! they suggested a tire balance which I agreed to but then they said they couldn't because the rim was bent. That is interesting since they just rotated them in April.) I can't imagine why the oil would disappear after 3,000 miles. Could the repair shop who did the valve replacement have drained the oil?
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I have a 1968 Beetle that has been sitting for a long time, after working through a list of items for the restart I put a new battery in and turned it over. Starter works fine and turns engine over but when I turn the key off starter will not stop until I disconnect the battery, When I reconnect battery everything is fine again until I try to start and starter keeps going until I disconnect battery again.
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I was driving on the highway in my 2001 jetta (332000 km) on the cruise control yesterday and suddenly it just started slowing down and stopped. Putting my feet in the gas did nothing . Before stopping completely the battery light came on. After won't start anymore, just making a sound like it is trying but turn in the butter. To be honest the check engine has been on for a while but we are pretty sure that is the glow plugs because it is a recurrent problem... Nothing else light up and there was no sound or smoke.
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