Vehicle hesitates when pressing or releasing gas pedal. Jerks after 1-2 seconds then is OK. Unable to immediately duplicate the problem but returns after driving awhile. I would like to hear it’s something less expensive than $900 for a new installed clutch kit. Thanks!

Hi All,

I’ve searched for Tiptronic in these message boards but did not find this topic so here goes.
2002 Jetta GLS 1.8T w/ Tiptronic 46, 000 miles.

I bought it because it was CPO and only had 41,000 on it. Black, great looking car, excellent cosmetics, I never had an automatic (and never will again).
Here’s the thing it is going back to service on July 19th for the exact same problems it went in for about a month ago.

Two problems:
1) The Tiptronic is trippin’ and VW says it is fine.
2) the temp light still comes on even though it was re-connected to the aux water pump.

Regarding #1, whenever going from Park or Neutral to a Forward or Reverse gear there is about a 5-10 second hesitation. VW tells me this is normal. I tell them that unless I start adding gas the tranny does not kick in, then when it does kick in it jerks and sound like when you slam a manual tranny into gear not sooth at all. Believe it or not I can accept this nuance BUT I have taken two long trips recently and twice on both trips their has been a scary pregnant pause between gearing up. One instance I am driving at highway speeds, I let up on accelerator and coast because of traffic slowing, I punch back down on the accelerator and nothing happens for like five seconds. LITERALLY five second at highway speed is a lot of ground to cover without control. (Are drivers wanted because previous owners are dead?) This has happened twice. Next, while driving in stop and go traffic and want to make left turn across oncoming traffic press gas nothing for like five seconds!!! While traffic is bearing down! When I first bought car VW service report says to get CPO all transmission shift point was checked? When it was in last month they said the same thing, i.e. could not find a problem? Shall I give them one more try in then go to AAMCO?

Regarding #2 I thought there was a post about an undisclosed recall? Well now it is summer but this happened on a cool day like it did in the winter Temperature light goes on when I start the car. If I reboot, sorry turn on off, temp light is fine. But like I said earlier VW service said they RECONNECTED it to the Auxiliary Water Pump my question being how did it get to be CPO with wires unconnected? Is there a temp sensor ‘hidden’ recall?

thanks , pete

My new Scion TC has been close to perfect (just an occasional slight cold start stumble until the car warms up) these past two months. Not a thing has gone wrong with the car after close to 4 thousand miles of driving fun fun fun! Now I know what all the VW fans mean when they insist that VWs puts grins in people’s faces when you drive them. Funny thing was, I rarely felt that with my Passat VR6 GLX and the numerous Jetta and Passat models that VW has loaned and rented to me whenever my Passat was dead in the dealer’s service department with yet another major breakdown.
The Scion is just getting smoother and quicker as it breaks in. It’s also so nice when I get constant praise from people on the streets and parking lot on how great the car looks. Just today, I think I convinced two people to buy the TC.
No, it does not have 200+ horsepower, and will most likely be left in the dust by most “”serious”" sportcars, but heck! based on my experience on the TC so far, this IS the best 17K you could spend on a car these days. Anyway, I have already blown away quite a few sporty cars on the road with the TC’s very good roll-on acceleration, because of the engine’s high torque characteristics. (A4’s, RSXs, TSXs, BMW 3s, a few 5’s and just today, an RX8). The TC just squirted away easily from these cars between freeway traffic gaps. The TC handles so well that it can actually oversteer like a rear wheel drive car if pushed hard enough in turns. There’s none of the typical, nose-heavy understeer that more expensive FWD cars like the Audi A4 has.
From what I have heard about older, more reliable and reasonably priced sporty (GTIs) VW models, the TC is the type of car that VW has forgotten how to build for it’s customers. Fun, well built, fast and cheap!
Scion has just announced that if the sales trend for this year keeps going, they could easily sell over 140,000 units in 2005 in the US! How’s that for proof that Scions are tremendously satisfying their owners and the word of mouth is quickly spreading!
Please watch and learn VW!!!! before it’s too late!!!!
I think that this will most likely be my last post on this site. My new car experience outside of VW has definitely made my point about how VW has to work on their quality control and their basic design philosophy that they use on their cars. Quit making your cars uneccesarily complicated VW! It only makes the probability of systems breakdown much more higher than other brands and makes the cars more expensive to fix. The headlong dive into the luxury market with the Touareg, Pheaton and the W8 has just been a total waste of money and resources that VW should have just used to improve their more “”regular”" priced cars. The new VW Jetta MkV seems to be now lost in it’s higher price point and lots of Jetta fans feel that VW has turned it’s back on them because owning a Jetta is becoming unaffordable. How a Jetta could cost over 30K is just ridiculous. VW should just let Audi take care of the more expensive market sector.
So goodbye to all, including our pals like Jasenm who I hope will eventually take their blinders off and finally see the light about VWs big problems and finally agree that something has to be done to save the company very soon.
Thank you very much too Rick and Paul for providing us with this very informative site.

Chombi
The guy with the big grin in the 2005 Flint Mica Scion TC, speeding away into the Bay Area sunsets!

Post edited 06/25/05 8:04 AM by Chombi

Does anyone know where I can get a rebuilt or after market A/C compressor for a 99 Passat? Mine went out and the dealer wants $1,100 just for the part. If I can find a cheaper one I will simply replace it myself. Any advice would be helpful.

Also I have taken it to 2 different dealers and both have said that the coolent is full.

I swear i bet this car has cost me half if not more the value of it when it was new.

I have been for vacation in the US (LA) and saw the SCION story. Compared to that and what VW is offering in Germany, VW is neglecting the US-Market totally.
Do you know the reason? Would it make sense to get more accessories from the VW Dealership? What is really common for customization on VW s in the US?

Every time my dog walks by the Passat he lifts his leg.

I’m going to take my 96 VR6 Passat to get fixed. I bought it 2 months ago. The guy who owned it before me was an idiot and didnt put power steering fluid it. Which, made the boot tear and now I gotta replace the whole boot. Possibly, a new rack. But even after replacing everything, I’ll still be under book value with price of purchase of car and repairs. => I got her cheap.

I have an 18 month old Passat. The lights reading STOP MOTOR turned on the other day. I immediately stopped the car. The car was towed and I found out that there was “sludge” in the oil screen. 1200 dollars later, VW denied my claim under the warrenty because I have had only 4 oil changes in 18 months.

So …. I did my research and thought I made an educated decision — to buy a 2000 VW Passat. Really bad move. Less than 45,000 and the emmissions has problems, the window in the front passenger door rattles, the handle on the front passenger door that is suppose to open the door — doesn’t, the passenger seatbelt is messed up, and …. the radio doesn’t work. Well, sometimes the radio works …. if I find a huge pothole and drive in it, the radio might come back on. Then again, if the radio is working and I drive thru another pothole, it goes off. So, I really don’t need an on/off button on the radio… I just drive thru potholes.
I really can’t wait to get rid of the thing and get back to a car that is reliable and that I can trust — Honda.