My girlfriend drives a 4-door, gasoline, 1992 VW Jetta GL with a 5-speed manual and about 150,000 miles. About two weeks ago, I began noticing an irregular idle. It was, at times, extremely rough when the engine was cold. Furthermore, while sitting at a couple stoplights, the engine nearly died. The revs would dip below 500, and hitting the gas had no immediate effect, but occasionally would rev the engine above 4000 rpm. (Like there was no electrical signal from the accelerator at first and then there was.) Also, I occasionally felt a jerk while driving at highway speeds like the engine would cut out for a second. When I popped the hood later, I could hear what sounded like a worn bearing. Now the engine barley runs. It is consistently extremely rough and will die within minutes of starting. At least 2 plugs were wet indicating no ignition. The distributor cap and rotor both show wear, but not so excessive as to cause a problem this sudden or this severe. The wires seem clean. I am assuming this is a timing issue and that the engine will have to be retimed, and the belt replaced. In hopes of a quick fix I removed the number 3 relay which controls the Digifant control unit, but the generic relay I bough doesn’t seem to function at all. (It was better with the old one I hoped was broken.) I hope I’m on the right path, can anyone else help me out?

 

Sounds as simple as a failing battery. Same symptoms happened to me.

 

I might have thought that too, except the battery is a one-year-old duralast and the headlights and instruments all function properly.

 

the battery can seem just fine but still be failing.. take it back to auto zone and have it checked..

 

sounds like a dirty throttle body or a faulty throttle body to me

 

Thanks for the input everybody, it turns out new cap, rotor, plugs and wires did the trick. I really appreciate the advice and will surely be back looking for more in the future.