I inherited a 1995 Jetta 3 GL with a manual transmission recently. It has 144k original miles, and the previous owner did regular maintenence on it.

The previous owner told me that the last time he took it in for a tune up the shop told him it would need a new clutch soon. I agreed with the bad clutch synopsis the first time i drove it, as it surged REALLY bad in the first and second gears, and took way too long to engage.

So I replaced the clutch, following all advice from these forums and my manual. The long engagement time is fixed, but the awful surging in first and second gear is still present. It is so bad that it feels like someone is hitting GAS-BRAKE-GAS-BRAKE-GAS-BRAKE in quick succession while i am steadily accelerating. The problem doesn't continue into third, fourth, or fifth gears, and it doesn't seem to happen in reverse either.

What could this be? My car still has the crappy self-adjusting clutch cable... could this be it? Does the pushrod that engages the pressure plate have a part in it that wears out?

I am at a loss here. It is a weird problem to say the least.

Thanks so much in advance for any help/suggestions!

- Casey

 

update:

i just replaced the clutch cable with a manually adjusting one. no difference. but at least that can be ruled out as the cause...

i did however notice something else: contrary to my earlier post, it DOES seem like it wants to do the studdering thing in 3rd gear also, ever so slightly. i assume that the torque is low enough by third gear that the problem is far less pronounced?

any suggestions? pretty please? i really need to get this car running!

casey

 

wow, over 30 views and not one person has any idea what it might be?

this must be a really unusual problem!

casey

 

vacuum leak

 

vacuum leak

 

update:

i changed the fuel filter today... made no difference.

i changed out the spark plugs, the cap, rotor, and wires with high performance parts... also no change in the problem.

i traced all of the connection points in the vacuum diagram and made sure all points were tight and not leaking anywhere.

i really hope this isn't the case, but i am starting to fear the flywheel might be the cause?

any other suggestions before i start the 4 hour long process of taking that ****ing transmission out again?

anyone?

thanks!

casey

 

thanks for the two words afarfalla...

in a way, they turned out to be right.

a member of a much more active/helpful forum i also post on suggested that it might be a rip in my air intake hose (the big rubber hose between the MAF sensor and the inlet of the intake), since the torque of the engine very well could be opening the rip, causing it only to happen while in gear....

he was exactly right. in fact, i went to three different junkyards today and 6 of the 7 potential replacement hoses i found were all ripped in the same spot, so it seems to be a common problem!

so hopefully next time someone gets this frustrating problem, they will find this thread... and hopefully it will save them the week-long post/diagnose/fix/wait/post/wait/post/fix/wait/post ordeal i just went through!

thanks again for posting something afarfalla!

casey

 

knew you had an air problem