BathSaltStarbux

Good morning.

I recently picked up a Jetta in a trade with my Miata. Here are several problems that I think I have solutions for after searching vwvortex and other forums but no solid answers.

All I hear bout vw is that they are always breaking down. I can do a lot of work myself.


Car

1996 VW Jetta
2.0 5 speed
109k miles

Problems:

Steering wheel
-loose: litterally I can shake it with my hands. Cover over steering column is zippied so I am sure something is up in there. What I have read up is that it could be caused by a bad tie rod. The chic I got it from just got a front end allignment but now its already off.
-deceleration: when I take my foot off the gas the steering wheel losens up and ... almost jiggles but stiffens up when I press the gas again. Solution.... eh... not sure

Turn signals:
- when foot is on the brake it turns off my turn signal on inside and outside. When this happens both turn signals on the inside are illuminated. Interesting... from what I got from other vehicle forums is change out the lights but there seems to be a grounding issue.
-when car is not warmed up and randomly, the turn signal... is slow as fuck. One chime or blink every 3 seconds. Not sure what to do. When I get near work the turn signal is back to normal besides the brakes.

Temp guage:
Automaticly goes to dead center. Even before its warmed up. *shrug

Shifter:
-shift boot nearly gone. Easy to fix but the insides where the plastic shifter bushings and such inside is dirty as fuck. Also one plastic part that I believe keeps it stiff is broke. : fix is to order a new bushing kit and shifter kit. Thinking of getting short shifter.

Besides this the car is pretty good. New tires. Ac cold as hell. Windows work .... and almost pulled 270miles on 7 gallons of gas.( my first partial tank. Just filled up today to see what a full tank will get me. Better milage than the miata.

Please let me know what is going on. Let me know if you need any more information to assist with assisting me.

Fabrik8

Turn signal sounds like a ground problem. So does the slow blinking. If there isn't enough current going through that circuit than the flasher won't work properly. That might not acutally be the problem, but it's a place to start.

Temp gauge is suspicious, but should be easy to troubleshoot.

Steering sounds like tie rod problems, maybe steering rack. The loading and unloading during accel/deccel sounds about right for a simple mechanical steering problem like a tie rod, should be no problem to fix. Could be a bushing problem also, for the same reasons of loading/unloading.

twintegra518

throw out the haynes book and get one of these



and buy this from me

BAN HAMMER

TEMP gauge is probablty a bad sending unit. $15 at advance.

Steering wheel could be steering rack bushings, tie rods, or maybe even something messed up in the column. take the cover off and investigate.

Blinkers: like fabrik8 said, ground or the flasher.

BathSaltStarbux

Thank you guys for the info. Lol wish we could see more post like this. Not like...


Eyyy yo my shits wack. It tick mad like yo lol

BathSaltStarbux

One other thing... when I press/depress the gas... it feels like the trans has to travel to meet up to the engine or what not... like there is movement when pressing the gas... ( i know that part sounds dumb) Like it jolts forward.

Garrett93

I don't know the severity of yours, but in my girlfriends Cabrio, it feels like that. So it may just be how the cars were designed? That is if I'm understanding it right, but I'm kind of unsure of what your trying to say.

BathSaltStarbux

Yeah. That one is hard to discribe.

Fabrik8

That sounds like really soft or damaged transmission or engine mounts. Probably really soft, so there isn't any NVH transmitted into the chassis. Normal people don't really notice or care if the engine is attached to the chassis with marshmallows.

BathSaltStarbux

Never really thought of that. I think I am just not used to fwd .... eh