Stalling/Revs drop in 2nd gear

[margin-walker]

Hi everyone,

I'll try and be brief for you! The lowdown - my car seems to idle ok (@ 900rpm) and is fine when driving along. No loss of power, no flat spots on acceleration. However, when I slow down into 2nd gear, for traffic lights and bends for example, the revs will drop to 400 rpm or below and the car sometimes can't hold it and it stalls. I have no problems re-starting the car though. It does this in dry and wet weather, when the engine's hot and cold. The car had a full service on Saturday but this hasn't fixed things.

Any ideas as to what it could be before I fork out ?s I haven't got taking it to the stealership? All replies will be much appreciated.

My car is a '96 2.0 8v GTI.

[jedi16v]

could be the idle stabisation valve a bit gummed up.

[8vgti]

I've got exactly the same problem on my '97 P 8v. The post is in the Mk3 section under stalling....I think. Replies to the post suggest cleaning out throttle bodies, temp sensor or someone mentioned a vacuum leak somewhere. Let me know if you get it sorted. Going to clean out my throttle bodies this weekend to see if that makes a difference.

[8vgti]

The title is '8v GTI stalling' if you cant find it!

[margin-walker]

The title is '8v GTI stalling' if you cant find it!

Found it! I phoned the local VW Stealership to see how much they charge to run engine diagnostic checks and they charge an hour's labour for it = ?72. Then I phoned some other guy who's not even really local and he's coming to my house on Saturday to run diagnostic checks and only charges ?35!!

I've been reading a lot and it could be any number of things - throttle body, MAF sensor, vacuum leak, distribution cap, alien force field . . . I'd rather fork out ?35 to get the error codes read than send it to a garage and have them spend 3 hours just trying to figure out what it is. My last 3 experiences with garages have been mind-altering! I never trust mechanics to give me a straight answer and fix only what is necessary. I think that's a real shame.

I'll let you know what he finds in the diagnostic checks. Meanwhile, if anybody else has had this problem and fixed it, or has suggestions then please post them. It seems this is a common problem and it would be nice if we could narrow down the possible causes!

Thanks.  

[i-espedair]

Tenner says its the throttle body is dirty if you have never had it cleaned before.

You should get it done every 50k. Should only cost about 40 quid anywhere or you can do it yourself and escape shopping with the bird for about an hour on a saturday afternoon!

[Gambit]

or u can blast a tin of ecoteck de-coker thru it for ?27, cleans the throttle body and de-cokes the rest into the bargain

[8vgti]

Tenner says its the throttle body is dirty if you have never had it cleaned before.

You should get it done every 50k. Should only cost about 40 quid anywhere or you can do it yourself and escape shopping with the bird for about an hour on a saturday afternoon!

You couldnt give a quick description or point me in the right direction of method to clean out the throttle bodies....what to look out for, etc etc?

[Blue MK2]

or.....

mix abit of diesel fuel with your petrol and it does the same job.

about ?3 worth of diesel cleaned mine out

[Veedubgt18v]

or it could be your throttle stop switch, there is one under the throttle body that tells the ecu the throttle is closed, if this is not working the engine can die, also the revs seem to hunt some time. this happened to mine and costs about 40 quid for a new one