98 beetle trouble codes

[alain blouin]

p0117,p1543, p01580.was told car has blown head gasket,no water in oil or vice -versa, no smoke out tail pipe, idles but stumbles a lot step on the gas it backfires all cyl.2.0 engine

[Kirk in Iowa]

Alain, I wouldn't be too quick to say this is a blown head gasket....maybe, but not based on these codes.

P1543 is a throttle potentiometer sending a signal that is too low.

P1580 is a Throttle actuator B1 malfunction.

Is it possible that you have had a bad battery lately?

If so, see: http://autorepair.about.com/library/faqs/bl118d.htm

If not, start looking at the throttle pot. That's likely the cause of your low speed issues. It might not be getting a good signal from the throttle.

The P0117 code is low input from the engine coolant temp circuit. More info is needed on this one to determine what is wrong. Is this engine running hot?

I'd also sure have a compression check done before I'd conclude the head gasket is blown.

Kirk

[veedubmechanic]

I would reccomend replacement of the coolant temp sensor and throttle body

[alain blouin]

thanks kirk ,im in agreement with u,the car did have a bad battery,it did run hot,overheating,i dont believe its the headgasket,the symtoms just arent there,since i got the car for nothing i have room to try different avenues the car is mint

[hako]

Originally Posted by alain blouin

thanks kirk ,im in agreement with u,the car did have a bad battery,it did run hot,overheating,i dont believe its the headgasket,the symtoms just arent there,since i got the car for nothing i have room to try different avenues the car is mint

I'd go with the blown headgasket scenario as you've cooked the motor and the usual end result is a warped head as a minimum. Modern cars don't behave like the old buggers but they sure seem a lot more reliable (generally!)

Good Luck Mate.

[Kirk in Iowa]

Originally Posted by alain blouin

thanks kirk ,im in agreement with u,the car did have a bad battery,it did run hot,overheating,i dont believe its the headgasket,the symtoms just arent there,since i got the car for nothing i have room to try different avenues the car is mint

Ahhh, more information.....Now the questions become, how hot, and how long? This car is indeed sensitive to overheating, and it doesn't take too long to warp the head, and blow the gasket.

As was suggested earlier, you may try replacing the two sensors, but certainly I would be doing a compression check on the engine.

Keep us posted,

Kirk

[veedubmechanic]

I have only seen 1 blown head gasket on a vw in 4yrs. The 2.0 dont warp heads and blow gaskets. A customer drove from south dakota to minneapolis with her car overheating the whole way. She didnt know it was overheating just the light was blinking. Yea its was a 500mile trip, overheating the whole way because of a broken water pump.