Issue with VW Jetta, help appreciated!

jdm91

jdm91

Spectator
I know it's an odd car to ask about on this forum but there's no restrictions as far as I'm aware and I'm sure a few of you guys could be of great help.

Car is:

'03 VW Jetta 1.8T (A/T)

So here's the situation:

My gf had been complaining about her car giving her issues and acting up. She said it wasn't driving the same but her explanations were meaningless as her details and descriptions toward the issue were very vague. This was about 3-4 days ago. I finally got a chance to see the car today so I decided to take it for a spin and see what the problem was. I start up the car and the first thing I notice is that the display on the cluster for the PRNDL (not exact but you get what I mean) selection has all of them highlighted when it's clearly only supposed to have P selected as it's still in PARK. I shift through the gears and notice that it's a bit rough while going through them. The display doesn't change and maintains to have all the selections highlighted. I proceed to take it for a drive so I shift it into D. I let my foot of the brake, E-Brake down, and I notice the car doesn't begin to creep as would any other automatic car. I then hit the accelerator and it doesn't respond until I'm actually a little over 1/4 throttle into it. The car feels very sluggish and doesn't respond to accelerating until you're about 1/4 way into it as stated. After I pull out of the driveway, I begin to drive and realize that it shift's into 2nd and won't go up past that gear. I had it climb to about 3.5K-4k RPM's before I let off due to the fact that I wasn't going to speed down my neighborhood.

Those are all the symptoms I noticed. I realize it has to be an issue with the transmission but I don't know exactly what's causing that. Idk anything about A/T's. Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
you need a new transmission, what sounds like is the gears inside the casing have gone bad. thus making the car to get into gear hard and driving like crap because it doesnt have the power to convert over. take it to a transmission specialist and have them inspect the transmission, most likely you will end up re-building the transmission. Is the check engine light on?
 
Aerok180 said:
you need a new transmission, what sounds like is the gears inside the casing have gone bad. thus making the car to get into gear hard and driving like crap because it doesnt have the power to convert over. take it to a transmission specialist and have them inspect the transmission, most likely you will end up re-building the transmission. Is the check engine light on?
Click to expand...


No, the CEL is not on. I already warned her that the car was most likely going to end up needing a new transmission. IMO, a nice & simple lakemod would fix the problem lol

Thanks for your input! :bigthumbu
 
might be the torque converter or even the pump going bad it depends. The lighting up probally means there is a code so hook a scanner up and see what it says.
 
yea sounds like a torque converter problem. maybe if the transmission was slamming into gears or grinding noises etc but all lights on and when in drive no movement...that points towards the torque converter.
 
It sounds to me like it's stuck in second gear or at least starts off that way. Many auto trans will do that in the event that there's a failure in it. The PRNDL Display being fully illuminated kind of supports that.

The problem with servicing the auto trans on this is it uses a two piece drain plug where the center portion is removed for filling and inspection purposes while the out and inner being removed allows for draining. Where you run in to a problem is that the service manual calls for use of a scan tool to monitor trans temps and top-off should be done during a specific temperature range. Without the scan tool, you don't know if you're outside of that range which can lead to over or under-filling.

Ross-Tech makes some EXCELLENT software that many dealer techs use in place of the dealer scan tool. You can purchase a cable for YOUR SPECIFIC application in a "personal use" kit or go all out and purchase the pro kit which comes with OBDII and OBDI cables as well as a more capable software package.

There are a lot of knock-off cables out there and a good portion of the software is available for free through Ross-Tech but I strongly urge you to purchase it directly from them. The price is more than reasonable and it helps Ross-Tech keep making great products.

Back to the car though, without knowing for certain that you've got a failure code stored in the TCM module, you're flying blind and will be throwing parts at it in vain. Additionally, many manufacturers require the use of a scan tool in order to REMOVE the transmission from limp mode. I.E. you may replace the failing part but the computer itself is still shutting down complete operation of the transmission.
Doug
 
Yeah yo most likely your torque converter cause mines was doing that until it just died n wouldn't drive.
 
what u guys really dont know is that hitler didnt kill himself he just hide in the vw factory and planned on annoying people with there wv for the rest of wv life :ugh:

ps dont buy wv there made by hitler

---------- Post added at 09:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:32 PM ----------

and the nazi super troopers
:driving:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom