I have a 1999 jetta IV. The car starts fine. Most of the time I start it and drive around town and all is fine. Sometimes if I shut it off and then try to restart, it will not start. It finally will catch after eight or ten times of trying with a few second pauses in between. When it does finally start, it smells heavily of fuel.

Also, which may be related, when i come to a stop the idle will not decelerate. Or it will accelerate on its own. I have to let out the clutch and eventually things will settle in.

Possible idle air control valve problem?

Any suggestions to this will be appreciated.

 

the same exact thing is happening with my jetta...mine is a 1999.5 with a 2.0 and it all the sudden will wanna rev on its own up higher and higher and you shut it off and it wont start and you gotta give it gas and when it does start it smells like gas really bad...and it will sit there and skip for a minute or two...help would be extremely appreciated

 

Well, I would like to say this was my only problem. Since this posting, my car overheated. I just finished replacing the water pump, timing belt, and tensioner. The water pump impeller was in five pieces. Hopefully this was had nothing to do with the rev. and starting problem. Actually maybe it did and I just fixed all the problems. I will keep posting if I run into any starting issues again. I still have to replace a water distribution fitting before I can start the car.

 

ok so i went to vwvortex.com and they told me that most likely its my mass air flow sensor....if you dont know where your mass air flow sensor is...it is located on your intake hose between your throttle body and your air filter..pop the disconnect the plastic plug from it and take the two screws out to remove your MAF they said take it off and clean it with high strength alcohol either isopropal or denatured...get a gallon ziploc bag put the sensor in the bag pour alcohol on it until the sensor is submerged and gently shake it to make sure the alcohol is distributed throughout the sensor....let it sit for a few hours take it out and sit it on a paper towel...let dry completely before putting it back in...also you could take your throttle body off and clean that too with some carb cleaner of some sort......and some people have speculated that an aftermarket air intake may cause these mass air flow sensors to fail...some ppl say the cleaning doesnt work and may have to buy a replacement MAf....im going to be doing this tonight...ill reply with teh outcome because your issue is exactly like mine...p.s. vwvortex has seemed to given me more helpful replies to my questions then this site...i suggest you register..but you can never rule out this website either.

 

Thanks. I will try cleaning the MAF sensor. I just started the car up tonight and it is working fine. The cooling system works great (knock on wood). I am already a vwvortex member. You are correct. I found alot of good information from both sites.

 

my car still does it...although i do think it may have quit skipping as much...the high revving still happens...but i may have found the problem...i found out my engine is an AEG...which was the only one with a throttle cable...i think just maybe my cars throttle cable is hanging up and sticking someplace...if you dont know if your engine has a throttle cable look on the back of the throttle body and you should see a cable spool....when your car revs up does it rev to a certain level and hold right there?...for example...my car revs up and sticks at 2200 rpm...and i rev it up and it still sticks and i go down the road and if i just lightly press teh gas and let off sometimes it will jerk abnormally and when its doing that i push the clutch in and sure enough it will stick at 2200rpm...i really dont know how to check this but im going to try to get two ppl one to press the gas pedal and one to look at the cable spool on my throttle body and see if when i let it out if it sticks in a spot or hangs up....im gonna spray the hell out of the spool with some white grease or something...lubricate it somehow and see if this helps me...if not the problem might be somewhere else in the cable

 

Sorry to hear that it did not work for you. I did spray throttle body with cleaner prior to my overheating problems. I have been running my car for two days now and it is working fine as far as the coolant issues go. The strating and reving issue have not popped up again either. It was 96 degrees today and I had the a/c running full blast. Temperature was at 190 degrees steady. Try throttle body cleaner for your car as well as the cable troubleshooting you are doing.

 

did your car temp gauge move around too?.....mine does it all the time back and forth from all the way down to 190 and back and forth while driving...and the ac isnt cold i figured it just needed recharged but maybe its more to it then that....when i bought it the woman said it started when she put the aftermarket intake on it but maybe its something else...im so sick of finding new things wrong with this car it seems like there is a thousand different possibilties and i dont have the thousands of dollars to do "guess and check" and fix something that was completely fine....

 

a guy just told me on vwvortex that it could very well be the coolant temp sensor...said that its suprising how much that thing being bad can mess with your idle and make it rev all spazzy like it does....and my temp guage doesnt work half the time it fluxuates around so i bet thats my problem...i havent read your one post that you put on what you all replaced on your water system but if you replaced this maybe you fixed your problem :]

 

Actually I did not replace the coolant temperature sensor, but I still may need to. It had jumped around a couple of time the past year. It could have just been coincidence. My check engine lite is on now, but the coolant problem is resolved. I need to get the code read when I get a chance.

Don't get frustrated with the issues on your car. Volkswagens are excellent products. They all have minor flaws like plastic items breaking and the occasional electrical issue. I have a 1999 jetta with 145k and a 1999 GTI with 111k. I previously had a 1990 jetta with 175k. Currently looking for another for my next daughter who will be driving.