Acceleration Problems VW Jetta

GSERAK

MEMBER
VOLKSWAGEN

2003 VW Jetta GLS Turbo - For some time now, I have had accleration problems with my Jetta. The car is 4 yrs old and only has 20,000 miles. When I push the gas to accelerate, the car does nothing for a few seconds and then jumps forward. This seems dangerous and does not allow you to pass cars or speed up quickly for any reason. I took the car to the dealership. At first, they said it was b/c two different people drive the car and push the gas pedal differently? This did not make sense to me. They did check the car out and told me the brake light switch needed to be fixed and that should help. The car was ok for maybe a week, but months later, I'm still having this problem. I've read online other forums with this same problem, but no solution is ever given. Are dealerships ignoring this problem? Any suggestions? I'm thinking about getting rid of the car before more issues start popping up. But I don't know who's going to buy it if it doesn't accelerate. Please let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks so much.

2 Replies

2CARPRO JACK

MECHANIC
11,533 POSTS

I would start by checking the Mass Airflow Meter and do a fuel pressure check. Does it start hard? Any other problems with the performance or does it go fine once you are past the stumble?

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Thursday, December 28th, 2006 AT 9:39 AM

GSERAK

MEMBER
2 POSTS

The car starts fine and I haven't experienced any other problems. There is just the issue when I try to accelerate quickly, the car downshifts and there's a couple second delay where the car actually slows down and then it kicks in and the car jerks forward. The car seems fine afterward. I can kind of tell now when this is going to happen, so I just try and accelerate slowly to avoid the problem. But this prevents me from speeding up quickly if I need to.