98 new beetle codes / resolution

Howdy,

I have no questions, but wanted to toss this info out into the ether as googlefood in hopes that it helps someone.

The wife's lately-seldom-driven '98 New Beetle was throwing these check engine codes:

p1582 idle adaption at limit p1128 long term fuel trim sys too lean.

The 2 codes my independent tech first tried to address by cleaning up the throttle body with carb cleaner and degunking it. That made us feel better but didnt' fix the problem. :-)

Next step was a similar cleanup done to the mass airflow sensor (MAF). Once that was done, voila, codes gone and never came back.

I was also hearing a sucking noise near the firewall.

The sucking noise turned out to be a cracked very poorly engineered vacuum hose coming off the brake booster. One shop said I had to go to VW for the part. Another independent said that was ill advised as the hard plastic teh oem part uses will just crack again sooner than it should. He used some hose he had laying around to repalce it and it's been working fine.

Third, the original Michelins on this car went for 75000. They were quite bald, and the tires were cracking --almost to the point where you saw the belt separating from the tire. But here's the amazing thing: they were still some of the roundest, smoothest at speed on teh highway tires I've ever had. And here I always have been told Michelins are overpriced. I haven't had a Dunlop, Kumho, or Firestone stay round for more than 35k much less 75k and nearly falling apart. Kudos to Michelin.

Fourth, the driver's door key lock became so hard to operate that I thought the key would break. Tech ordered a new door cylinder from VW matching the existing key code. Took a couple weeks to come in, but the replacement was dead easy once it did. And it didn't cost that much either.

Finally, on a more obvious note the following codes I saw once: p04422 Evap small leak p0455 evap gross leak

were corrected by tightening the gas cap.

Happy driving.

Cheers, Todd

Reply to
Todd H.
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Reply to
Jim Behning

Agreed. In trying to get helpful code resolution out to the group versus giving you a complete description of the vehicle's history and use, I neglected to mention that a) the tires were not bald, but probably below the legal limit--tread depth was actually less of a safety concern than the cracking and belt separation that was starting to ocur b) the car was being driven only on dry days for that reason as a spare vehicle and c) I replaced them when the car returned to regular driving service.

But thank you for coming in with your cape to save us! My hero!

Reply to
Todd H.

p1582 idle adaption at limit p1128 long term fuel trim sys too lean.

The sucking noise turned out to be a cracked very poorly engineered vacuum hose coming off the brake booster

The vacuum leak could/will cause both them faults. As for the hose, can't be too bad of a design as I never replaced one yet. But sounds like you got things under control.

Reply to
Lost In Space/Woodchuck

Yeah, that was the thought/hope the tech and I had as well. The hose was replaced and throttle body cleaned at the same time. We cleared the codes, and they returned before I got back to the house, and kept returning for another week (I have my own odbii scanner).

After that week, it went back to him, he pulled the MAF and cleaned it up, and finally then, when the codes were erased, they never returned. I agree, the broken booster line seemed to be a component in it though, as the idle changed noticeably once the leak was eliminated.

Glad you haven't had a problem. Yeah, they use quite a hard/thin/brittle/shiny black plastic on that particular hose, versus other makes that use a much more traditional rubber thick-walled hose. Since we're in Chicago, and the car was almost never garaged, perhaps the cold dry winters ganged up on it and it finally cracked a bit at the booster fitting.

Yeah, it was quite a cheap fix I'm happy to say. And I'll tell ya what, I liked the pennies the hose the tech had in stock in his shop cost versus what the heck VW wanted for that crazy friggin hard plastic booster hose (which also wasn't in dealer parts stock).

T
Reply to
Todd H.

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