I have a 1995 VW Golf GL, automatic. BION, it has only about 30,000 miles on it. I always warm it up and I replace the oil and filter every 6 months. Every 2-3 years I do a basic tune-up because it has always run very well and I use it so little it makes no sense to change spark plugs which have 2,000 miles on them, etc.It started running slightly unevenly about a year ago, a couple of partial tune-ups, injector washings, and other stuff mechanics do seem to have fixed it.A month ago or so it started dying on the road. Sometimes it would start again, but then it wouldn't. So I had it towed to my garage.The (13 year old) coil was replaced. It died after 6 months, a new one was put in ten days ago. It died within a week, a new one was put in at no charge. So far so good.In the meantime - for about the last month or so - the car started idling rough - the needle moves between 650 and 850 - it NEVER did that before - it /used/ to /run/ a bit unevenly but the tune-ups, injector washing etc. appear to have fixed it. It rusn fine at normal driving speeds.It also failed air check for the first time EVER - the CO emissions were too high, between 1.5 and 4.5 - depending on who messed with the distributor before. They have to be under 1 or it doesn't pass. Luckily (?) I live in a place where you can "help out" a guy and get a sticker no matter WHAT the readings are. Since I drive the car twice a week at most, I can't even feel guilty about it.Several people told me to change the oxygen sensor.At the end of a tiring day of messing about with all this, I was passing by a small garage and they put a scanner on it and it said 00525 - lambda sensor. So the guy said to get a new oxygen sensor.My regular garage - who so far have been the best garage I have ever been to in my life (yes, I know...) - put /their/ scanner on it and /it/ said that the idle air control valve needed adjusting - so they adjusted it and it ran like a dream for about 30 miles. (It always runs like new after...

I believe that you are running an aftermarket ign coil. I have not seen many or any of those survive for long. I have seen them died within a week and never last past 1 year. I refuse to use them!!!I ONLY purchase them from the dealer to get their TEMIK brand.

Idle air control valve or oxygen sensor or what?

May 31, 2008 22 Replies

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Jim Behning 18 years ago

My 21 year old Toyota with 270,000 miles has never had any silly warm up sitting in the driveway nonsense. My Rabbits that had 300,000 miles on them before I sold or destroyed them had fine running engines with no silly idle in the driveway warm up. My 1967 Beetle, the family 1966 Squareback never had sit in the driveway idling warm ups. Heck the engines never really warmed up until they were driving. My 2003 TDI with 190,000 miles has never had a warm up driveway idle. Heck a diesel never really warms up anyway. If your oil never gets hot you are causing damage. Hot water is not hot oil. All kinds of bad things happen if your oil does not get warm.

This may not be a binary problem. Running rich as mentioned because of a bad oxygen sensor can cause the catalytic converter to fail. This causes the car to use even more fuel as it has an exhaust restriction. Leaky vacuum hoses can cause all kinds of problems. I head read bad grounds cause problems. I have had bad connections at a hall sensor in the distributor cause problems in my Rabbits. Lots of gotchas that possible a VW savant may find but not an average mechanic.

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Duncan Wood 18 years ago

Yes, but the damage is done whilst it's warmin up , wheter you drice it or not.

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Jim Behning 18 years ago

\\ The oil temp gauge would not move until I had been driving a few miles. It would not reach a good temp for oil for 5 miles driving 55 mph. Water temp could be at optimum temp in 2 minutes in the summer. A bit longer in the winter but I in Georgia where winter might get below freezing 14 days. My 2003 does not have an oil temp gauge. My 84 did as it was a GTI. Many cars do not have oil temp gauges which is really the way to tell if an engine has really warmed up. Most gas cars will hit warm engine water temp a few miles or more before the oil temp has gotten properly hot. My water cooled gas cars are making enough heat to be comfortable a mile from my house in the winter. Why would I waste fuel letting the car idle? Sorry I came from a frugal house where there was little if any warmups done on the family cars unless it was 0F or colder.

I must say that no one I know starts a car and lets it idle. Even less likely in the US as fuel prices are double or triple what they were a year or a few years ago. I even see trucks driving the posted speed limit now as trucking companies try to save on their biggest expense fuel. I see more people turning off their cars as the wait in the queue at the fast fat food restraints.

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