let me start this by mentioning that i have already searched on her and read several threads that seemed to possibly pertain to this issue. about a week ago, i was with my fiance in her car (2000 jetta with 2.0 & 5 speed). gas was getting low to the point that gas light came on. we stopped for gas at a Fred Meyer gas station and filled up, then before getting out of the parking lot, the car started chugging and running rough, then threw a check engine light so we took it home and parked it. a few days later, i read code and it was Cylinder 4 misfire, so my first thing was to replace spark plugs. sure enough the #4 plug was coated with black residue on the end. got it all put back together, turned it on, cleared code, then took it for a test drive. not very long into the test drive, the car started chugging again and threw another CEL. got home, looked at it, and this time it was cylinder 2 misfire. i have since changed out the fuel filter, and added a bottle of fuel drier into the tank, cleared the code again, and tried for more. same issue of #2 misfire keeps coming back, and car is severely lacking power to go up a hill, and chugs the worst then. i also noticed yesterday when i was working on it that when i would downshift and rev up more while it was having issues, the speedometer would jump up about 20 mph when RPMs got higher. also to make this more confusing, the car was in a shop awhile back for the engine coolant temp sensor to be replaced and a week ago, it also said that the ECT was shorting out to ground, but it seems to work now. i am beginning to wonder if a wiring harness got a little too close to something hot from the motor and sheathing on a few wires has melted and they start touching from time to time and that is causing all my problems. another person listened to it and said it almost sounded like a vacuum leak.

next steps for me are to do a fuel pressure test off the fuel rail, check air filter, and clean MAF sensor. from some of the reading that i have done, it seems that there was a TSB about coil packs needing to be replaced on this generation of jetta, but it wasn't clear if that was for the 1.8T or the 2.0. judging from the fact that there seems to be one coil on the 2.0 and 4 on the 1.8, i am thinking it is for the 1.8.

Are there any other suggestions on this or others who can chime in with help?

thanks in advance

 

wow..no responses. anyway, i took it in to a shop, and they replaced the coil, that seemed to fix it at first, but when they took it in to their shop that night, threw a CEL again, and same problem, so they tried replacing the plug wire on #2 with a spare they had in their shop. that fixed it, so they ordered a set of all new plug wires. seems that the car was just in need of a full tune up.

anyway, new issue that just started today. i live in an area where we don't normally get much snow in the winter. We got 3" last night. My fiance drove to work this morning and as she was turning into the parking lot at her work (about 15 min drive from home), the battery light started flashing, and the power steering went out temporarily. A couple turns later, the battery light flashed again and power steering went out again, but came back. The battery itself was replaced within the last 6 months. Any suggestions on this new issue?

I will be gone to a national conference until sunday, and i get in late sunday night, so i will try to check monday or so.