This is sort of long, but if any one is good at diagnostic via nntp I'd vey much appreciate it. Tonight was the second time I've had massive power loss while driving, and it's really starting to worry me. First off my car is a 1991 Jetta GL. The issue only comes up while driving long distances. The first time I was 90 minutes into a 2 hour trip, tonight I was about 90 minutes into a 3 hour trip, both mainly at 55 mph on state roads. My car runs fine as I'm cruising along. It starts out small at first. A slight slow down. Tonight it was slight enough that it could have even been the high wind. Then it gets more and more severe. First bucking then a complete power loss through 1/2 the RPM band. I'll be at 3K and with out moving the gas it'll drop to the point where I have to clutch. At first clutching works, I give it more gas it'll pull itself back up to speed and i'll re-engage. But that doesn't last long. Eventually I'll have to pull off to the side of the road and "give it a few." I'll rev it up a few times and get going again. Sometimes for longer than others. This finally got to a point where I decided that I had enough and that I needed a break. So I pulled over and turned it off. Went in, went to the bathroom. Came back out and restarted it. It idles fine so I can't ever tell if that's the problem. But when I went to start driving the hesitation was still there. So I pushed the pedal to the floor until it finally spun up to the red line, I did this twice or so and then had no problems for a good 20 or 30 minutes. Then it started again. This time I was in the middle of nowhere, so I just pulled over, put the blinkers on and gave it the redline treatment again. It seemed to work. Now I finally make it to the highway (un avoidable, I wish I could have taken backroads). On the on ramp I'm not doing so well, I can't pass 3k rpm with out it issuing. So I pull over and just sit at red line for a few seconds and I'm back and doing fine. This time I start to have problems on the highway so rather than pull over and red line it, I think maybe the italian tune up may be the way to go. So I drop it down to 3rd and just start cruising. It seems to accept it at first and then it just falls off fast and then stalls completely. I pull over and give it some time (Enough time for me to stop swearing at it). It starts up fine, and idles like nothing is wrong (like always). I eventually make it to where I'm going.
- posted
20 years ago