I have a 1997 Golf Trek and lately it's been stalling for no reason. I had it looked at about 2 months ago but the mechanics couldn't find anything wrong. The computer didn't read anything because the check engine light that had come on, miraculously turned off and the problem fixed itself. They cleaned out the throttle body and charged me $80 and it ran fine for about a month and a half but last week, I was driving to class and it stalled in the middle of an intersection. It wouldn't start back up on the first try, it didn't turn over and the engine and battery lights came on. It didn't start on the 2nd and 3rd tries so I pushed it out of the intersection. I tried starting it again and it still wouldn't start so I let it sit for a minute. I tried starting it again and after sputtering a little and taking more time than usual it started. The engine light stayed on but the battery light went off. But after it shuddered and revved itself then stalled again. While driving in first and second gears (and sometimes third) it lurches and feels like it's going to stall and does this quite frequently.
After it sat for a few hours I started it up and it ran fine. The engine light stayed off as did the battery light. It was running fine until this morning and it did the same thing. No battery light this time, though. I hesitate to take it to a mechanic because they can't find what's wrong and the closest VW dealership is 90 miles away.
Anyone have any ideas or solutions or had this problem before? I can't have my car stalling in the middle of intersections! Someone pleasehelp!

Thanks,
Heather

 

I had the exact same problem with my 95 golf. I took it to have it remedied and they told me they couldn't diagnose the problem. I ended up selling it for much less than I had paid for it as a result.[:'(]

In hindsight I wonder if it was an air intake or vacuum problem.
Sorry I can only commiserate on this one.

 

I had an issue sort of similar in an old car of mine, would start sometimes sometimes it wouldn't, it was just my battery terminals, one was very loose and would wiggle around... honestly this most likely isn't your problem but just thought i'd share....

i'd assume its some sort of vacuum, air intake, or fuel line (filter) issue... i would guess that the techs would have found that though


sorry i can't help more

 

I finally got it figured out! If anyone needs to know, the rotor and distributer were falling apart; the mechanic could pull out pieces of both of them. This was causing my car to switch between firing on 3 and 4 cylinders making it lurch through first and second gears. They started up my car and sprayed it with a hose (albeit a very strange method of testing) and it immediately died because the water killed the spark to get it started and keep it running.

If you have a cold, wet weather issue that sounds like this, get it to a VW specialist. Don't make the same mistake I did and take it to someone who didn't know anything about VWs. As soon as I mentioned it was having problems in wet weather they knew exactly what was wrong. This would have saved me at least $80 I wasted on taking it to a mechanic that had no idea what was going on. The mechanic said this was a really common problem with "older" v-dubs.

Since I couldn't get it started a had it towed to the nearest VW dealership but they called the next day and told me they don't work on"old" VWs anymore...correct me if I'm wrong, but when did a '97 become an "old" car that a dealership can't fix?! Has anyone else had this problem?

 

dealer ships see anything over 5 years old as a old car. honestly i would take it to the same guy that diagnosed it. should be an easy fix. I dont know tho.