Hi all,
A few more questions surrounding my VW Golf, that I've been meaning to bring here for a month or so but haven't yet... until now! :)
I don't know too much about the history of the car, have only owned it since March, and it currently sits at around 300,050 kms (or, according to the odometer: 50).
In June, I took the car on a road trip from Vancouver, BC to Los Angeles, CA. For the most part I was very impressed with its performance, even with 3 adults in the vehicle. Great fuel consumption, didn't burn too much oil, fun car to drive! On the trip back, though, I started to notice some performance issues... it started idling too low, and would stall almost anytime I pushed the clutch in and took my foot of the gas. (This made the 45 minute wait in the border crossing lineup more frustrating than usual!) I also noticed that when I started it that morning, it was idling very rough, and the entire engine was shaking considerably. The signs at that point, I thought, were pointing toward a problem with the fuel injectors, and ran some injector cleaner additive through it once. This cleaned up the problem quite a bit, and for the most part since, the car has run without stalling.
Every once in a while though, I will start it and it will run poorly - missing at idle, almost stalling or stalling at stop signs, etc. The annoying thing is that I haven't found any common link, it seems to just randomly pick days to run more rough than usual. Hot, cold, rain, sun, gas tank ful, gas tank low, gas tank in the middle, etc. And of course anytime a real mechanic looks at it, it runs like a dream.
At driving speeds it is typically great, although occasionally I notice it running a bit rough at lower speeds (in 1st gear in particular) - suddenly jerking forward while holding the gas steady in a parknig lot for instance, or the RPMs suddenly dropping as though I had let my foot of the gas, etc.
Also, now that the weather's starting to get a bit colder in the mornings, I've noticed that it tends to start a little harder in colder mornings, seems to just barely turn over. One morning, it didn't turn over the first time, I waited 30 seconds then tried again and it started, ran very rough for the 1 km drive to the Tim Horton's coffee shop where I turned it off to get a coffee and donut, then when I came out and started it again a minute later, ran perfectly the rest of the day.
Add to the mix a Check Engine light that comes on intermittently, and always goes out within a day, if not a couple hours. It typically comes on about 15 minutes into a trip at highway speeds. I was told by the local VW dealer not to worry about having them read the code until the light comes on and stays on, or else I would probably find an inconclusive reading. (Does the computer store the codes after the engine light goes off?)
Anyway, that's a summary of all the details I can think of. I took it from BC to Montana and back a couple weeks ago (12 hours each way) and it performed admirably the whole way, so I don't think I have major problems... but would like to be able to do as much as I can to fix things myself...
Any suggestions as far as things I should be looking at, testing, replacing, draining, etc? :)
Thanks folks...
Jeremy