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stranded in blizzard blue

Wife's got a "new" '98 Wolfsburg Jetta 2.0, so I had to try it out.

Was driving it last Weds, and found out they were having a small blizzard (24" of snow?!??) in Dayton, Ohio. The car drove beautifully in the snow - I could drive anywhere on the highway, while all around me slid around and spun out. My '89 Golf does well, too.

Suddenly, the thing lost power... then it died. The "Check Engine" light was on solid (flashed as it died). It would crank, sputter like it wanted to start, but didn't start no matter how much I cranked the motor. This is normally an inconvenience, but given that it was 3 miles from the nearest exit on an Interstate, there were 3' snow drifts, the snow was coming down, and it was DAMNED COLD, it meant that I was in real trouble.

I did get it towed into town, where I spent the nite in a hotel. The car spent the nite in a Sear AutoCenter garage. The next morning, the car fired right over, and ran great. Eventually the "Check Engine" lite went out. However, when I was 2 miles from home. At that point, it started bucking when shifting gears. If I kept the revs up I was fine, but if I babied it then I didn't have much power and it bucked.

QUESTIONS -

  1. The obvious -- best guesses on what's not happy here? Any common problems with these A3s? I'm used to the A2 Digifont, and this is all new to me.
  2. How does one read out the codes on this motor?

Thanks!

Tim Wohlford '89 Golf, 245,000 miles '98 Jetta, 67,000 miles

Reply to
Tim Wohlford
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You probably got snow in the intake by the fender. I think you have intake hose cleaning to do and you might have an intake hole leak in the ribbed hose. The MAF was not happy with all of that snow and it got confused. That's my WAG...

Reply to
Peter Parker

My guess might be that you plowed thru snow that got up on the ignition wires/coil.

I also thought about water freezing in the gas line, but that seems less likely to me.

Reply to
Tom's VR6

Ignition coil arcing... along with, cap, rotor, wires.

Was the mil flashing just before it stopped? I once had a car that I drove through heavy snow and then stopped running. Once I open the hood I found the engine compartment packed with snow and you couldn't see the engine.

Reply to
Woodchuck

One way is to get an OBD-II scanner and software for about $150. Your car requires the ISO interface. Googling with these key words will turn up several choices. Depending on what you buy you'll need a laptop or a PDA to run the software and provide a keyboard and display. On a 96 Golf there is a small panel to the right of the front ash tray. Removing the ash tray provides clearance to slide the panel left which exposes the OBD-II connector. I'd guess the arrangement is similar on your car (the connector is required to be somewhere in front of the driver seat).

Reply to
Raymond Cruz

I am betting on the ign. coil! The ign coil and plug wires need to be tested by misting them with water starting from the spark plugs and ending at the ign. coil. ONLY buy the ign coil from the dealer!! I have bought some aftermarket ign. coils and it is hit or miss by 3:2. The last bad one was by Beru. :-( Dealer is 100% so far. Oh if you are going the cheap route you may be able to cover part of the ign. coil with epoxy and that might seal it from moisture. ;-)

Codes are read with either a OBII reader or a Vag-Com tool. I like the Vag-Com tool by ross-tech.com and so will you.

later, dave (One out of many Daves)

Reply to
dave

Autozone will read the codes for free and tell you what they mean and possible causes.

Reply to
Simplstupd

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