Club 80-90 Forums

Hello fellow VW lovers,
My dear old 1999 1.6 Bora was driving very nicely, suddenly it developed a loss of power.......no Engine warning lights. Very slow and sluggish when I press the accelerator pedal to increase revs but it does drive OK ish. although it feels like I am towing something heavy. Maybe a broken plug, coilpack or injector I thought so removed one lead at a time with a noticeable difference on each so it must be something common to all four cylinders ? A few ideas would be gratefully accepted.
Thankyou
Pete Abbott
PS My T25 camper gives me no problems at all. Happy camping folks.

get it checked for fault codes (or buy a cheap reader and DIY)

Also try unplugging the MAF - should be near the airbox - does this make a difference?

Could be a lot of things. Maf through air filter or even blocked cat if it’s using oil


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Thankyou for the replies. unplugged the MAF and made a slight difference ? Took it to local friendly garage and his diagnostics would not read VAG 1999 ! I am about to burst into tears ! !
Cant understand it as it was driving nicely until I sat in traffic for an hour and then when the traffic got moving it was very sluggish to pull away.

Could it be the lambda sensor ? Got hold of a DIY diagnostics and all it says is "engine fault" ? no alarms on dash so I will sleep on it..........may as well watch that football thing that everyone is talking about !

Does it get serviced?


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Can you clear the fault? It might be trying to save itself from you


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Pop round mine on weekend and ill dig out my vagcom

Rick

Not sure if mine will read it either but worth a punt

Smcknighty wrote:Could be a lot of things. Maf through air filter or even blocked cat if it’s using oil


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Every breakdown could be "a lot of things" Finding out from other knowledgeable folks you can save a lot of time and effort by finding out, by their experience, a definitive answer. And yes it is serviced although it is 18 years old ! I just love my old campervan and car and keeping them on the road is part of the fun BUT sometimes some constructive help is appreciated. thats what clubs like these are all about ......
Thanks for your reply, happy camping.

Cobra88 wrote:Pop round mine on weekend and ill dig out my vagcom

Rick

Not sure if mine will read it either but worth a punt

Thats very kind of you COBRA88. Rick

Well im in ipswich and it might read it

I have k line vagcom so possible
Pm me your number and ill text you address ip3

Rick

Well, that was interesting. Last MOT I had the old girl serviced.....plugs, oil and filters. Everything pointed to the MAF so I bit the bullet and bought one.......lots of this old boys pension quids. Anyway I fitted it and for a few miles it ran well, happy man. Then fault came back. To change plugs 2 and 3 the inlet manifold has to be removed for access. 1 and 4 plugs were good 2 and 3 looked like originals so had not been changed for years ! ! 4 new plugs and she now runs lovely. Happy man again. The 30 year old T25 and the 18 year old Bora sit well together on the drive. I love my vdubs. Thank-you to the folks who offered help and advice.

Take it back to the garage who serviced it last year and ask for your money back, re: plug change they didn’t do but said they did. Name and shame the garage so others can avoid.

There’s a reason behind this I feel. We are a throwaway country - why bother doing a proper job, the car should be worthless before the point it fails. If there was some value in these older cars then people would expect and demand a decent job to be done.

Good job in keeping it alive


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Only read your reponse about servicing just now. My question was a feeler along the lines of - is the filter blocked, are the spark plugs dead. As it was, that was pretty spot on.


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