95 golf cl 1.8 litre ... tank is full of gas, what was an intermittent problem is now continuous.... engine revs fine, idles fine but when accelerating, especially in lower gears the car lacks umph, and sounds of sputtering appear to be coming from exhaust. car sat for two weeks and the weather has become damp.... if moisture is problem how long of running engine before problem erradicates.... or, could it be cat prob? any response may be of help thanx

 

Hey I just had these same problems with my car 1998 gti vr6 we took it to the shop and they said it was the mass air flow sensor also know as the maf I got one from a junk yard for about $86 and put it on myself in about 2 min and I am a girl that is probably the problem dont take it to the shop they want about $600 to do it for you we always take ours in to have it hooked up to the diagnostic for abut $75 then fix the problem ourself saves you alot!!!! hope that helps.

 

Sometimes vw golf parts are sensitives... I guess it is really the volkswagen catalytic converter problem, that you are concerning with, but most common failure causing those symptoms (you didn't mention if there's a tons of black smoke) would be the mass air flow sensor. It is located in the air intake pipe just after the air filter housing. Proper diagnosis requires a scanner, but if you want you can pull the 5-pin electrical connector & drive, if the performance improves (it won't be perfect) the sensor is bad. This will set a check engine code that will need to be cleared, most larger auto parts chains can do this for free.

...Goodluck. Hope this helps.

 

i have this problem, low rpm stuttering, and as soon as i hit about 2500 rpm, the problem goes away. i picked up a haynes manual, and they said it could be plugged injectors, if your car is fuel injected like mine, or the spark plugs could be gapped incorrectly or may need replacing. which both suck cause the intake manifold must be taken off to get at the spark plugs and that means new gaskets...

 

I have pretty much the same problem with my '92 Golf. Starts up fine, rev's fine, idles fine, but drives poorly - sluggish acceleration, black smoke from exhaust, spitting and sputtering. I had the O2 sensor replaced last year and that seemed to fix the problem but now a year later, they replaced the O2 sensor again (third one in 1.5 years) and it's doing the same thing again. Luckily I found a post on the internet somewhere from a guy who had a '90 Jetta with the same problem and replaced his catalytic converter and that fixed his problem. I think this is possibly my issue since I just had my entire exhaust system replaced except for the catalytic converter. (they said it still "looked good" and it was stainless steel so it should be OK) I noticed when I got the car back from the dealership that it ran fine even though the exhaust was still horribly damaged. Except this time, the connection near the engine had come apart (before the exhaust hits the catalytic converter) and I assume this is the real reason the problem was fixed b/c the exhaust wasn't getting kicked back by the clogged converter. Once I got the new exhaust on and everything was sealed up, it seemed to run fine on the way home, but the next day ran even worse than before. I'm assuming I'm having a "back pressure" issue and that is causing my problems. I'm going to take it back to the muffler shop and have them run a test on the converter to see if there is back pressure occurring. I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

Ok, took it to the shop and they ran their tests and the converter is indeed clogged and showing resistance. Gotta order the part and once it's in, it will hopefully be the end of this problem for me.

On a side note, drove my Golf to the shop and had the problem most of the way there. However, ironically, it corrected itself about 5 min from the shop. Stayed corrected all the way home save for the last 2 min of my drive and then it started up again.

 

Well, that didn't fix my problem. Still getting stuttering, black smoke and poor fuel mileage. I'll be heading back to the dealership to give them an earful. This time, the car isn't leaving until it's working right! Could be the MAF, fuel injector, or computer...who knows?

 

my golf had tha same problem except i changed my distributor cap and rotor got new spark plugs(NGK V-powers) and wires and the problem has been fixed ever since...try that and let me know how it goes

 

Well, left it at the dealship for over a week, and after having their senior tech work perform diagnostics on it free of charge for quite a few hours, they couldn't figure out the problem. They tried adding in a converter near the MAF and an O2 sensor wiring harness that a technical service bulletin had suggested (that wasn't done on my car) but that didn't fix the problem either. I thought about the distributor but the one I have looks pretty new and so do the spark plugs. *shrug*

This problem is so intermittant that once I got the O2 sensor replaced last October, the problem was fixed all the way until it started acting up late September. The second O2 sensor didn't correct the problem this time.