1997 Volkswagen Jetta GT from North America - Comments

See 1999 "do not buy a Jetta, unless you want to spend a lot of money" and see Comments.

...Ditto, same problem here. Started a year ago, at first the hesitation only happened once a week, and now a couple of times a day. Brought my 97 Jetta GT in to the dealership twice and they never could find what was wrong with it, emailed the service manager and ignored it.

This is how it goes; the hesitation comes after the car has been sitting for a while and at the first stop, the car goes wild. You can usually anticipate it with how the brakes feel, you brake at the stop, a slight vibration, and when you hit the gas pedal, it does not want to go, seems to stay in neutral (even backs up a little) (and I have an automatic) and if you push the gas pedal too much, it gives you a hard kick. So the way to go is to hit the gas pedal, real slowly and it doesn't give you too much trouble. But hey, if they are cars behind you, that can be a problem, stuck there for a moment.

So I'm pretty much out of solutions!!! My car is not that old, so want to keep it for a while, even though it is costing me a lot in maintenance and other fix-ups, for a 5-year perfect maintenance record, the total comes to $2,500, everything seems to go bad early (battery at 30,000; front and rear brakes at 35,000; exhaust system at 47,000 etc). Without this problem, the car is great, but from my experiences I don't know if I want continue with Volkswagens, 2 generation of jetta/passat owners, maybe try them all, Beetle or Golf next? So live with the hesitation problem for now?? I'll try bringing it in at another dealership and hear what they have to say. Does anyone know what this is? To be continued...

Try going to www.vwvortex.com in the forums for your engine type. I have found allot of useful advice from people there. You can certainly expect plenty of suggestions for your hesitation problem. I know a few certified vw techs that frequent the site so you might even get some expert advice. Good Luck!! BTW I have a 1997 Jetta with 75,000 miles and have not had a single problem. VW is one of the most reliable cars you can buy, trust me and don't give up on em :)

Car problem solved, thank you. If you are having hesitation problems with your Volkswagen, check your transmission fluid level (or may need to replace the transmission system). It turned out that I was a quart short, causing the slippage to occur (had it for almost a year?) on my Jetta GT. Somehow my ex-dealership neglected to look into the transmission fluid level, during my 30k and 40k maintenance services, and also during oil changes? I now have a new dealership I can trust. It wasn't my car that was bad, it was just the dealership! (and if you write to Gerd Klauss, CEO, 3800 Hamlin Road, Auburn Hills, MI 48326, www3.vw.com, they will respond, at least they did for me).

That's why you need to pump your own gas and check your own fluids. You can't rely on others. I've been down the same road such as the notoriuos quick lubes that say they check your fluids. I'm looking at a 97 Jetta right now it is an automatic, but from the sounds of the owners it sounds like they are trying to pull something because one says the tranny is fine and the other says it could be rebuilt because it has 140k on it. I've had vehicles that We have done two engine saps with over 300k on one tranny and never had any problems, but it was a Chevy pickup.

Hi.

I have a 97 Jetta GT 300,000K no major probs. I also had the hesitation problem. Mine was the spark plug wires. Get them replaced - it fixed mine.

Hi!

I read your comments and I wanted to ad a few words on my own.

I also have a 97 Jetta Gt (bought with 15 miles on it) I have the issue with hesitation also, but that is the engine with not enough ponnies, this car I bought it because I thought it was made in Germany not in Mexico so far the problems that I had cost me about 2000 dollars, the major problem was the $ 800.00 device responsible for mixing air with fuel, and my dealer that I bought the car from far from honesty wanted to get me for airbag sensor thanks that I called VW USA and found out that it was covered under warranty, now I have another problem (car currently has 76000 on the odometer) the problem is with valve gasket it is leaking oil so the quality of car made in Mexico is as you can see very poor!

I own a 1997 Jetta and I experienced the same issues for about six months or more. The car is automatic and was acting like it had manual transmission. I took it in to the dealership to get a full tune up hoping that would ease the issue and it didn't.

Recently, I went to get an oil change and they told me I had a transmission leak. I took it to another German car repair shop and they said they can fix the levels, but the issue is the transmission and its on its way out. I got the fluid levels taken care and the car runs fine. There is no more hesitation in the transmission. But, I also have a broken throttle body which ultimately affecting the performance as well.