Hello all, nice looking forums you have here, I'm hoping somebody can help me with some issues I'm having. I'm fairly new to VW's, just have a 98 Jetta GL 2.0 that I bought cheap to use as a secondary car.

A bit over a week ago I was driving in a heavy thunderstorm, came around a turn and drove through a pretty good sized puddle, kicking water up over the car. (98 Jetta GL 2.0). Instantly the car started sputtering, and within a 100 feet it shut off so I drifted off the road. It tried to crank it a few times, to no avail so I left it sit and came back about 2 hours later. It turned over and started, sputtered a tad on the drive home but otherwise ran fine. I assumed it to be just some moisture in the distributor. Next morning it cranked a bit before starting but drove to work and back fine. That evening my son took the car to run in town and on the way back it started sputtering on him as if it was out of fuel and he drifted to the side of the road. At this point he tried to get it to start and I’m assuming being a youngster with little experience he kept cranking and cranking on the starter because when I went to look at it that after he called it wouldn’t even attempt to crank. I followed a Jetta-No-Crank troubleshooting guide I found online and found the starter to be bad.

I was a bit nervous to try the starter myself with the need for the engine to be supported since I don't have a garage so last night I towed the car to a garage that put the new starter on for me today. When I picked it up it was rough to start (they told me it didn’t start easy for them either) and when I pulled out it only made it a few hundred feet before it started sputtering and died out. I was able to get it to start again and drove it back to the garage, but they were closed at this point. Thinking this pointed back to the original problem I went and bought a new distributor and rotor, put them on and also added some dry gas to the fuel but it didn’t make a difference.

At this point I can get it to start after cranking for a bit, but it doesn’t fire immediately as it should. It will sit and idle and if I give it a tad of gas it will idle up and I can keep it at a high idle with a small amount of gas applied, but as soon as I let off or try to give it more it starts to sputter again and/or will shut off. If I try to pull it in gear and drive it sputters and shuts off.

What should I look at next? Does it sound like I should look at plugs, wires, coil, etc. or does this sound more like a fuel problem? Where are the fuel pump and fuel filter located and is there an easy way to test them on this car?

This is a secondary car for us, so I don’t want to rack a ton of money up in it, but do need to get it fixed asap. Any suggestions/ideas would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

well i would check out the fuel filter .. it is cheap you can do it yourself.... and really sounds to be the prob... for real... cause i had a jetta act the same exactly...... it is under the passenger read door rocker panel.... you just have to take out the fuse for the fuel pump.. crank it a couple times to release the pressure in teh lines.. then get under and have the other ready and something to plug the hose coming from the gas tank though it is not much fuel that comes out... unbolt the housing for the pump... it is just two nuts on the sides.... take one off at a time though makes it easier.... loosen the rings on the hoses holding to the filter... make sure the arrow on the new one faces the same way as the old... arrow toward the engine.... meaning gas flow toward the engine lol... and just stick the new one on housing before you bolt back up.. then bolt up the housing and get rid of the old one.. that is bout it.. is only like 13-30 dollars for the filter....

 

It turned out to be a cracked coil....