VW Acceleration issue. Help from VW people?

[03NHVW]

So I drive a 2003 Jetta, which for all intents and purposes has been awesome for the last 10,000 miles and gets me 34-35 mpg with economic driving.
This past weekend the gas pedal started getting "stiff" and hard to depress, the progressed and finally tonight it was hard to get up to 50 mph on an average grade and the pedal felt like I'd break it if I pushed any harder.

Then, I get home and let it sit for about and hour, go out and start the car and suddenly the pedal is feather-light again and the RPMs zip across the tach easily. ...took it for a ride and the problem is gone.

Any idea what causes this or how to prevent it from happening again?

[03NHVW]

So I drive a 2003 VW Jetta...for all intents and purposes has been running fabulous for the last 10,000 miles and delivers a consistent 34-35 mpg with economic driving.
This past weekend I noticed the accelerator pedal getting "stiffer" to press down and the engine not wanting to rev, this situation getting worse until today when I could barely manage 50 mph up a slight grade. The pedal felt like it would break if I pushed any harder and the engine just bogged down and pinged. Weird, right?
So...I fill the tank on my way home and try to figure out what might be wrong. After about an hour of sitting, I start the engine and now the throttle is working perfectly again...can put the pedal straight to the floor and the the rpms zip right around the tach...no issue.
Any idea what caused/causes this so it might be avoided again?
Any help greatly appreciated.

[cleanspeed1]

You didn't specify whether it was gas or diesel. First thought that came to mind is that if it is drive-by-wire, there might be something wrong with the accelerator pedal assembly ( it's a big rheostat ); the next thing deals with whether it has traction control and one or more of the sensors is malfunctioning and sending a bad signal to cut the power back. But it's all guessing; you need to plug the old girl into VAG spec diagnostic tool and run a check.

Another thing, and it may seem kinda dumb, but make sure your floormat isn't in a wierd position that can limit pedal travel.

[Christ]

+2 floor mat.

If it's cable connected, chuck some graphite powder down the cable while working it back and forth, and check that nothing is binding at the throttle body.

[ChrstphrR]

Gasser or diesel? I don't know 100% if the gas models are drive by wire like the TDIs from the late 1990s to present are, or not.

But if that's so, there is no "stiff" pedal physically... it sounds like you're going into "Limp" mode -- where the power is curtailed by the ECU.

There is a plethora of information on all the common to less common reasons the car is set into Limp mode for the TDI engined VWs, and I would imagine that things would be similar on the gas engined models, but of course, some of the same sensors and parts might not be there! So, specify your engine/fuel type, and that'll help even more.

Off the top of my head though, easy to check things:

* If you have a scanguage, or a standalone OBDII code reader, check your codes, if any. The codes it throws when you scan, are ISO codes, not the VW/vag-com/vcds style codes, but can still be looked up to see if what is wrong.

* Check that your air cleaner and the intake ahead of it isn't clogged full of dust, dust bunnies, mouse nests, birdsnests, etc.

* If that's not a potential issue, check your MAF sensor the cheap and easy way: Unplug the electrical connector to it (the ECU will ignore the non-connected MAF, and use it's own default settings). This could indicate a bad MAF sensor.


And back to fuel type: I don't know the best resource for a non-diesel engine online, for VW, alas... maybe parts of vwvortex.com ? But as far as diesels go: TDIclub.com and myturbodiesel.com would be the best sources of info to diagnose your problem.

Hope that helps for a starter...

[ChrstphrR]

Link to my reply to your duped thread...

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post242497

[Ryland]

VW has more throttle related issues then any other car maker, people talked up the issue with Toyota and the Prius, but a much larger number of VW's on the road have issues like you are having, or where they rev up and don't slow down.

[Christ]

Seems to me like he's actually complaining about the pedal physically being difficult to push.

[03NHVW]

Yes, again, sorry about the duplicated thread.We actually don't have internet at home right now so I was down the street at the local library...the connection is really slow so I ended up posting twice without knowing it...clicked "reply" twice.

Gas engine...2.0L, non-turbo 115hp AVH, no traction control...bare bones model.

Christ...yes, the pedal was really difficult to push, but even when I did push it down there was little to no actual throttle response...but I like the graphite on the cable idea.
...checked the floormat...wasn't that.
...checked the air intake, not that.
...however, today it ran perfectly...all the way to the shop to have a bent axle shaft replaced. =(
The guy working on it said he found no throttle problems and it isn't coding for anything at the moment...so if it happens again, I'll be looking back to this thread.
Thanks a million for all the suggestions!

[robchalmers]

soda can behind the pedal?? :P

was it hard to move at the top of its travel or part way down?