Hey there!

first off let me say i am not a car person so sorry for my non-technical description of my problem! bear with me

I have a 1999 new beetle with a manual transmission. i bought the car used in great condition in 2007 and since then it has ran like a champ, very few issues besides routine maintenance. In september, i moved up from southern california to seattle (i drove it up), and at first the car was fine. In october the alternator died, and we had that replaced. since having the alternator replaced, it has been intermittently stalling. At first it was very rare, it happened one then didnt for a few days then again, then nothing for a week. Now, it is stalling all the time while driving. we cant take it anywhere without at least one stall. it often stalls back to back - youll get it started and within a minute or two itll stall again, sometimes immediately after starting up, you will roll forward a foot or two then it dies again.

when it stalls, it doesnt make any noise or doesnt jerk around or shudder. it just quietly dies. then it wont start again for a good 5-10 minutes. when you try and start it, it will try to start - the engine makes noise like its starting but just cant turn over, if that makes sense. after a few minutes it starts again. the most recent time it stalled, it stalled on the freeway, then after starting again it immediately died again and made a strange crunching noise as it died - sounded like it came from the engine. this is the first time its made any noise when dying. after a few minutes it started again and we got where we needed to go. it usually stalls when slowing down or stopped at a red light - it has never stalled when accelerating. we tried shifting into neutral at red lights and taking my foot off the clutch when idling,and downshifting when decelerating, in case it had something to do with having the clutch pushed in, but that made no difference.

also, i dont know if this is relevant at all -but the alternator mechanic said that i will need to replace the starter soon. occassionally on starting it makes a grinding noise. they said it will go out in a few months (though its been making that grinding noise for years).

i have no idea what it could be, an if it is going to be a big fix. i tried taking it to a mechanic when it first starting happening on rare occasions, but they couldnt get it to stall to diagnose the problem. any ideas would be great, i really dont know what to do with it anymore!

thanks so much!
andrea

 

Welcome to the forum Andrea.

Its that a petrol or diesel Beetle?

 

its just normal gas, non diesel non turbo. about 115k miles on it. and no check engine lights

 

It's all nuts and bolts so anything is possible. You might even be able to fit another transmission from another vehicle but that would require some fabrication and transfer kits if you could even find them.


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Rhonda Allison

 

Why the hell would she want to fit another transmission for a stalling problem?

She needs to do or get someone who knows what they are doing to do some checks and adjustments on the starting system.

 

on another forum someone suggested getting it checked for vacuum leaks in the engine and getting the throttle body cleaned out. second opinion on this?

thanks so much for your replies

 

Well on TDI's the vacuum lines are a problem to they need to be checked the aren't loose, kinked and they are secure.