Hi,
I have a 97 VW Jetta GLS with 166 000 KM. I never had this problem before, but recently, everytime it rains, my car would not start. The engine keeps cranking but it would not fire. This only happens when it is raining lightly for a long time. The car would automatically starts when the rain stops and its dry after couple of hours. I tried checking the engine whethere there is water or not on the spark plugs during rain. This is causing alot of problems for me. Eventually the car starts if I keep cranking the enginer for like 10 minutes. It picks up and fires. I don't know what the cause of this problem is. Should I replace spark plugs and the wires? Any moderator or anyone with the similar problem, please help. I also remember 8 months ago, one of the guy at my work place opened a distributor cap to show me something. After that he put that back on and if I recall properly, this problem started since then. Please help if anyone had similar problem or any ideas to replace anything?

Regards,

Duke

 

you might need to replace your distributor cap or again could be the coil, just because there is no water around it doesent mean there isn't any in it. again could be a crack in the coil. but scan it for codes something might pop up

 

Take a spray bottle of water and mist around the distributor and coil to see if anything happens. It's probably the moisture in the air getting into something.

 

complete tune up and then see what the result is

 

Duke,

I am having the same problem. I replaced the cap, rotor, plugs, wires, fuel filter, air filter and fuel pump (so you can eliminate these items). Not sure what to do next though.

 

ok,i found it!after much head knocking and time spent on sites like this i was able to take everyones input and fix my problem.i have a 98 jetta with the 2.0.when it was wet i had some kind of an ignition issue but could'nt pinpoint it.i tried the waterbottle trick and was able to narrow it down to the ignition coil just an hour after i already bought a new cap and rotor.i put those on anyway.the coil had a crack in it that i could'nt see till i took it off.a lot of you will laugh but all i did to fix it was coat the whole thing in silicone.i really didn't have the $150.00 for a new one.i coated it up pretty good and gave it a whole day to dry.also i put di-electric grease on all of the connections that have anything to do with the ignition.ever since i have not even had a sputter.i hope that someone has as goo a luck as i did and am glad there are sites like this out there for a first time vw owner.