Damsel in Distress '99 Jetta bogs down

[rusty46947]

I am so frustrated with my '99 Jetta....I could just scream! It all started several months ago when I would start my jetta up and it would bog down for no reason. My husband has replaced MAF, cleaned throttle body, replaced spark plugs and wires and had the catalytic converter replaced. This car has only 76,000 miles on it and if I had more money, I would get rid of it. I have always loved my Jetta, but this is getting very frustrating. It has run great for a few weeks, but I left work yesterday and started out of the parking lot...had to wait on traffic. When I started out and shifted to 2nd...it just bogged down...but if I keep accelerating it finally kicks in. Then it bogged down again shifting to 3rd, again pushed accelerator to the floor and it kicked in again and then ran just fine. I started it this morning, and I could just tell it was going to bog down again...so put it back in the garage and drove hubby's mustang. Came home from work today and seems to be running fine. Took it around the block and worked great. At idle it seems to be a little rough, not smooth running...other times...no problem. Don't want to go back to the dealership, as they have tried to screw me over with the catalytic converter deal......another story. Please help me.....I'm getting very desperate and afraid the hubby is going to blow my car up as he hates working on this foreign piece of junk...as he calls it.

[veedubmechanic]

Sounds like your throttle body might be bad. they are a common problem on 99.5 new jetta.

[57ringo]

I've had several american cars do that and it was the fuel filter inside the tank that was plugged. It runs untill it's starved for fuel then bogs down. If you let it set for a while, it would let the stuff settle out of the filter and run ok untill it sucked the filter full again. May not be your problem but wouldn't hurt to check.

[BIGGRED35]

Originally Posted by 57ringo

I've had several american cars do that and it was the fuel filter inside the tank that was plugged. It runs untill it's starved for fuel then bogs down. If you let it set for a while, it would let the stuff settle out of the filter and run ok untill it sucked the filter full again. May not be your problem but wouldn't hurt to check.

It would have to be throwing a CEL. Plug it in to a code scanner. It should find a trouble code.