I've been having some major problems over the last few months w/ my
99.5 2.0 Golf - all related to losing throttle, kicking/bucking, and stalling.In short - a few months ago I was driving and suddenly lost all throttle and the car kicked its way to halt (did not stall). After a restart it was fine. A few weeks later - same thing. But when I was stopped I just floored it and the rpm bounced from 1000 - 2000 - 1000 etc about 2x a second. After a restart it was kicking and would crap out after a while. Eventually it would completely stall.
Anyways - had the following replaced over several visits to the mechanic (the car was throwing codes for each, but he would do them 1 by 1 and mix-and-match to see if it was just one part throwing the others off - but at this point they are all new):
Speed Sensor Cam Shaft Position Sensor Coil Packs Throttle Body
He reprogrammed the CPU too - he could not find a replacement from a junkyard and was thinking maybe it was just trowing the wrong codes.
At this point I'm not stalling, but after about 45mins of driving it will start to buck and kick for a few minutes - then stop for a little bit - then start up again later. When kicking it as about 2-3 kicks a second - maybe sutter or stumbling is a better description. It also seems to happen more often when I'm going around a right had turn. Also if I'm stuck in traffic it's the worst. It is OK when I'm idling, but when giving it gas it is kicking.
He said that I'm loosing a lot of compression in my 1st cylinder (it's dropping to 60-80). Would this be causing this kicking/bucking behavior? He said there's a leak in the entrance/exit valve and would need a rebuild. Approx 1000$.
I'm going to take it elsewhere for a 2nd opinion, but does this sound right? Any ideas if it could be anything else?
Many thanks. I can't really afford to do that rebuild if it isn't going to fix this problem once and for all - I've dropped about $1000 already on this problem. I've got 148,000 miles on the engine.