Folks, I'm at wit's end with the following problem:
When the car was about two years old (and just a couple of months after the 40K service), the check engine light began to turn on occasionally. Eventually, I started to notice what seemed to be a misfiring / sputtering of the engine at low RPMs (when first starting from a traffic light or whenever i accelerated aggressively enough to make it downshift). It would seem like it wanted to stall, but when the RPMs got higher it would be fine. Felt a bit like when a spark plug is mucked up... This problem only happened on long rides (longer than 45 minutes)
I took it to the dealership and they diagnosed it as a "random misfire", which they allegedly fixed. Lo and behold on my next long ride, the exact problem happened. A few months later (unfortunately, it's a royal pain for me to spare the car for a day), I took it back. This time they told me that there was a faulty temperature sensor that was causing the car to inject the incorrect fuel mix (???). They replaced the sensor and declared it fixed. The shuddering of the engine stopped, but the car felt very sluggish for a couple of weeks, at which time, the original problem came back (shuddering, engine light on...).
Before I take it back to the dealership so that they can try their random theory of the month, I'd very much appreciate any insight that any of you might have into the problem because I'm starting to feel like I'm being taken for a ride by the dealer, who is either unable or unwilling to really solve the problem.
On a related note, I am a bit intrigued by the whole story of the ignition coil recall that VW had for 2001, 2 and 3 cars. I know that it mostly applied to 1.8L engines but the description of the symptoms is pretty compatible with what I'm experiencing...
Again, any thoughts and advice would be most welcome.
Regards,
Sergio.