Jetta making ugly noises...Help?!

[Freeskier]

Hey all,
I've been doing field school in Bamfield for 6 weeks, and me and my room mate went to start his 1997 jetta for the first time to drive to the beer and wine store. First off it took awhile to start, I thought no problem, needs a bit of time to get everything circulating again. Then we have to break free the brakes from their death grip on the rotors, again not unexpected...this is the west coast after all. But now it's been running for about an hour and still won't go past 3200rpm without losing all power and stalling. Same thing happens when you push the throttle too quickly, it just loses it and stalls. It has virtually no power in any gear, just stalls at the first sight of a hill, and needs some coaxing of the clutch/throttle combo. It also develops a really nasty sounding rattly noise at about 1800rpm in neutral. We checked all the fluids, the air filter isn't clogged etc. Anyone know what this is from my brief description? Is this just stale fuel or does it just need more time to warm up?
Thanks in advance for the help, I don't know new vee dubs at all.

[omfgcurtis]

Almost sounds like a MAF issue. Do you have a check engine light on?

[Freeskier]

No, no lights on at all. It does sound/smell like its running really rich though.

[Awd-Tsi]

what kind of vacumm are you pulling at idle/cruise speeds?

[revelations]

If its an older model jetta, that has been sitting outside in the wet coast rain of late (awesome summer eh?), check your ignition wires when its dark...open the hood and look for arcing.

BTW, what the heck does one do for "field training" in Bamfield, fish bonking? :rofl: (prob federal DOF related)

[Freeskier]

Haha, no I'm doing scientific diving at the Marine station. Come to think of it, I have been doing a lot of fish bonking though...mostly on my free time. Interesting note; salmon = easy to kill, halibut = freakin impossible.

[Rat Fink]

.

[JBreaks]

car sounds like its in limp mode. the sound is probably spark knock caused a terrible air fuel ratio. could be a number of sensors, which wouldnt be to crazy to imagine if its sitting in high humidity. Start by checking for vacuum leaks and go from there, but my bet is on MAF/MAP/TPS.

[Freeskier]

Hypothetically let's say that we couldn't see any arcing at night with soap lol. And next hypothetical is that we're in bamfield bc which is 2 hrs from anything. Is there a quick fix to any of these sensors? Or is he gonna have to limp to port alberni and get it fixed there?

[omfgcurtis]

Unplug the maf and see if it runs better, 2.0L engine?

These also have issues with the coil, look for some cracks if not try spraying it with water

[tarrantas]

Had this happen to my 98 2.0L jetta when the battery died...it turned out it was in limp mode and i believe was reset at my local shop. probably going to have to try to get it to someone with a code reader and such and who knows how to reset ecu :dunno: