2001 VW JETTA VR6 Just Overheated

[eltacubo]

My Jetta (which looks awesome but performs like garbage) only has 36000 miles on it. I take it in for basic service every 6000 miles.

About a year after I bought the car it started faltering whenever I started it up. Any time the car is off for more than about 30 mins..and I start it up... it practically dies (sometimes it mysteriously revs up really high then "settles down" after a few seconds) When I finally pull away and start driving.. the car doesn't respond to hitting the gas pedal for few seconds. It sputters and coughs and nearly dies for a good 10 seconds before it decides to function properly. Ive had intermittent EPC lights for about 2 years already and a check engine light on forever.

When im drving on the freeway the car refuses to pick up speed for about 5 seconds after the engine hits 2000 rpm...then it kicks in like it's got a rocket engine. It is impossible (not to mention dangerous) to merge into traffic on the freeway without knowing what my car is going to do or how it's going to respond.

I took my Jetta in for emissions testing this weekend and it failed miserably. I pretty much knew it was going to fail based on all of the problems I've had with it..but I had to meet the testing deadline so I rolled the dice and took it for testing. The diagnostic codes at the testing station indicated that I had misfires on all cylinders and a few manufacturer specific error codes.

Took the car to the mechanic after emmisions test failure(a recommended one - I now refuse to deal with VW dealerships in Chicago because theyve turned out to be nothing but liars and crooks).

The mechanic replaced plugs and the temperature control sensor - Engine no longer misfired but it was still giving an error code related to the MAF sensor l believe.. ( I dont have the code with me at the moment).

On the way back to the mechanic this morning, and pretty confident that my problems might soon be over,.. the car overheated and dumped all of the engine coolant out.

This seems like its going to be a huge problem and a ton of money to correct.

This car is aesthetically pleasing but it just doesnt seem to ever work correctly.

Perhaps you're wondering why I havent taken it to the dealership to get serviced? I have. I took it as soon as I started having these problems. I took a 2 year old car with a 5 year extended warranty into the dealer for repair. Instead I got slapped with a 1200 dollar repair bill for 2 sensors that they claimed were not under warranty. In fact ive taken my car to VW dealerships here in Chicago for repair a few times already. NOTHING has ever been "covered under warranty" (I havent even mentioned all of the other miscellaneous stuff that ive taken it in for). It's as if they painstakingly designed the car warranty so that everything that would go wrong with it wasnt covered.

My hope is that all of these problems could be isolated to 1 thing that could be replaced or repaired (besides the driver..hahaha) and have the entire car running smoothly (for at least 6 months - I've never had the pleasure of enjoying a healthy jetta for more than 6 months). Can anyone possibly shed some light on the source of all of my problems?

I've also read forums throughout the net and my problems arent unique. Does anyone know if any legal action was ever taken up with VW with regards to this car? Hundreds of people cant be wrong..


Thanks for the help.

[veedubmechanic]

2 very common problems with mk4 vr6 engines.

1-thermostat failure: you dont drive your car much, thermostats stick alot on theese and cause the car too overheat. a main coolant hose goes directly to the block from the coolant resivour. when the thermostat sticks the coolant stays in the engine and overheats causing all the coolant in the engine to boil out over the resivour.

2. coil packs: they crack alot on all vr6 engines. there about 550 for the part alone. just spray some water on the coil pack (where all the spark plug wires go to) and if you see it arcing or the car dies it needs a new one. This is a main culpret to misfire codes

[Maarcus15]

my jetta VR6 got overheated too, first mechanics said that this problem was caused by the winder's engine, because it didn't worked when the car was overheating, so I changed it and it works now, but the car still overheats like shit... what could be the problem? the thermostat????

[twinly01]

If you already checked most of the cooling system such as the thermastat, I believe overheating can also be related to the headgasket, which could possibly explain your hesitating problem. I would check your coilpack as the other members mentioned for cracking, I just replaced mine on my 2.0 and it made it stop missing at cyl. 1 finally. This was causing mine to hesitate.

[Maarcus15]

yeah man I've already repaired it, u're right the headgasket was also one problem and another was that radiator wasn't working properly, now I changed both and MY VR6 has no problems.. but it won't last a long time I think)) I'm sellin it right now, thanks for information