Help! While driving sudden loss of power and stuttering
Discussion
I was driving on a small highway between 100 km/h - 140 km/h (when passing), and about 10 minutes later
I suddenly felt a loss of power and response from my pedal. Each time I pushed down on the gas pedal a little bit,
I got a stuttering of the car (back n forth) with feeling of loss of power. It kept getting worse for the next minute or so
as I was slowing down looking for a small road or even garage to stop at. I was just moving along in a local residential road
at around 5-10 km/h and could feel the power loss getting worse. Car was stuttering back in forth and sound of the exhaust was like spuddering (loud and then quiet, loud and then quiet). It eventually gave me absolutely no more power that I couldn't drive anymore and I just stopped/parked, turned off the car and about 5 minutes later I restarted the car and it seemed to be working again fine, so I kept it at low speed around 60-70 km/h to head back home. There were no problems on that drive home. I didn't want to try and push it to see what would happen again.
Also, no check engine light or any warning light of any kind popped up on the digital screen. I have 3/4 full tank of gas. Engine oil needle was right at 90 (perfect) and I checked the engine oil (when I was parked) and it was perfect also....although there was some kind of yellow fatty looking deposits around the dipstick....I'm assuming that is normal due to the cold weather or the type of motor oil (2013 VW Scirocco R, gasoline).
Does anyone have any ideas what could be the problem? I think I have an idea what it is but I'd like some second opinions.
I'll have to get it checked at the service center soon and hopefully it's nothing too serious.
I suddenly felt a loss of power and response from my pedal. Each time I pushed down on the gas pedal a little bit,
I got a stuttering of the car (back n forth) with feeling of loss of power. It kept getting worse for the next minute or so
as I was slowing down looking for a small road or even garage to stop at. I was just moving along in a local residential road
at around 5-10 km/h and could feel the power loss getting worse. Car was stuttering back in forth and sound of the exhaust was like spuddering (loud and then quiet, loud and then quiet). It eventually gave me absolutely no more power that I couldn't drive anymore and I just stopped/parked, turned off the car and about 5 minutes later I restarted the car and it seemed to be working again fine, so I kept it at low speed around 60-70 km/h to head back home. There were no problems on that drive home. I didn't want to try and push it to see what would happen again.
Also, no check engine light or any warning light of any kind popped up on the digital screen. I have 3/4 full tank of gas. Engine oil needle was right at 90 (perfect) and I checked the engine oil (when I was parked) and it was perfect also....although there was some kind of yellow fatty looking deposits around the dipstick....I'm assuming that is normal due to the cold weather or the type of motor oil (2013 VW Scirocco R, gasoline).
Does anyone have any ideas what could be the problem? I think I have an idea what it is but I'd like some second opinions.
I'll have to get it checked at the service center soon and hopefully it's nothing too serious.
Check under the oil cap for creamy deposits and look in the expansion tank to see if there is any oil on the surface of the coolant but you shouldn't have any deposits around the dip stick, sometimes you can get some around the oil cap if the car has only been driven short journey's for a substantial amount of time but hard to say what the issue is, would suggest getting a sniff test done though to see if you have a HG issue 
Just to summarize:
-car had sudden loss of power at the pedal after going around 140 km
-gradually lost more power in the next minute or two as I slowed down and looked for a place to park
-no check engine light, no weird noises from the car, or engine. no black smoke from exhaust
-just stuttering, herky jerky movement which i think is normal for when a car has lost power at the pedals and you keep trying
to gas it to move
-car did not shut off on its own. I parked it and shut it off because I literally couldn't move anymore and didn't want to be stuck
on the road blocking traffic and have to get towed if I couldn't drive later.
-parked 5 minutes, checked engine oil, saw the off-white fatty gunk stuff on my dipstick which is due to not having driven long
enough for engine to boil it off? I only drove around 12-15 km from cold start when this happened.
-daily driver only 15 km per day...most likely condensation and not HG issue. No coolant leaking, no overheating of engine, oil
temp needle perfectly in the middle, no warning lights on
-car did have its engine oil and filter changed 2 months ago, timing belt was changed a year ago
-after 5 minutes, re-started the car without any issues, was able to drive back home without any issues....no odd sounds, feelings
smells, but i just drove it at 60-70 km/h tops because i didn't want to push it harder and risk having the same problem happen
again on the middle of the roads.
-I've set up an appointment just now to get it checked out. Main suspect i would agree with is sounds like ignition coil/injector coil (same thing?) and recommendation of changing coil pack sounds right.
-nobody thinks it might be a fuel pump or fuel line / injector issue? I had a ford focus years ago that had a bad fuel pump (recall) and the similar feeling occurred...loss of power at the pedal like I had no gas left.
-car had sudden loss of power at the pedal after going around 140 km
-gradually lost more power in the next minute or two as I slowed down and looked for a place to park
-no check engine light, no weird noises from the car, or engine. no black smoke from exhaust
-just stuttering, herky jerky movement which i think is normal for when a car has lost power at the pedals and you keep trying
to gas it to move
-car did not shut off on its own. I parked it and shut it off because I literally couldn't move anymore and didn't want to be stuck
on the road blocking traffic and have to get towed if I couldn't drive later.
-parked 5 minutes, checked engine oil, saw the off-white fatty gunk stuff on my dipstick which is due to not having driven long
enough for engine to boil it off? I only drove around 12-15 km from cold start when this happened.
-daily driver only 15 km per day...most likely condensation and not HG issue. No coolant leaking, no overheating of engine, oil
temp needle perfectly in the middle, no warning lights on
-car did have its engine oil and filter changed 2 months ago, timing belt was changed a year ago
-after 5 minutes, re-started the car without any issues, was able to drive back home without any issues....no odd sounds, feelings
smells, but i just drove it at 60-70 km/h tops because i didn't want to push it harder and risk having the same problem happen
again on the middle of the roads.
-I've set up an appointment just now to get it checked out. Main suspect i would agree with is sounds like ignition coil/injector coil (same thing?) and recommendation of changing coil pack sounds right.
-nobody thinks it might be a fuel pump or fuel line / injector issue? I had a ford focus years ago that had a bad fuel pump (recall) and the similar feeling occurred...loss of power at the pedal like I had no gas left.
Ok sorry to keep asking but I've just been doing more research all day since this happened and I keep learning about something else that leads to something else......so the problem is that since I don't know EXACTLY what caused my car to lose power at the pedals, and the nearest vw center for me is pretty far (100 km at least), I've got a dilemma. I've been reading more about bad ignition coils or bad coil packs, but to be honest, I don't know if that is what it is. They say that symptoms are rough idling which I don't have or ever had even before today. It's also mentioned that you'd have rough startup or difficulty to start up the engine which I've never had any symptoms of that either, even after this happened and I parked for 5 minutes break and restarted the engine. It's also mentioned that most new cars are now smart enough to detect which cylinder had a misfire and kill the supply to the fuel injector so that there won't be unburnt fuel that might burn or melt the catalytic converter. I really don't want to drive it 100+ km IF i'm going to do serious damage to it or start a fire or burn/melt something like I've been reading, but that's assuming that it is a bad coil pack. There is one thing I've asked around before and nobody really seems to reply to it. In your sciroccos, when you drive say around 120-140km or higher and push it around 4000-5000rpm (not too hard, not even redline), do you notice or feel a lot of heat in your face coming off from the windshield/vents for the windshield, not the vents on the console panels. No heating is on, no fan is on. Yet from day one when I got this car, I noticed it right away that hot air comes off the windshield and in my face when I drive it faster or a little harder. Now that seemed OK because during the winter time, i need that heat lol, but I've NEVER experienced that in any cars I've driven before (fords, chevys, GM). Is that just something normal part of the sciroccos or volkswagen cars? I'm just wondering if it possible that when I go up to speeds that high, something in the engine compartment is getting very hot and causing a lot of heat to enter the cabin...but there is no smell of burning whatsoever. It's just as clean as if you were to turn on the actual heater fan. The oil temp has never shown any overheating, but is it still possible for the engine bay to overheat without the engine temp revealing it?
One other possibility.....I've been using regular gasoline. Would that cause some issue like this? Am I supposed to be running premium gas or something like that?
One other possibility.....I've been using regular gasoline. Would that cause some issue like this? Am I supposed to be running premium gas or something like that?
Sounds like a "basic" - lack of fuel or spark issue.
Hard to tell which or why. If it kept running lumpily till you turned it off yourself, like it was running on less than 4 cylinders, then probably coil pack, they can give problems when hot then are OK when they cool down. Assuming that either each cylinder has one, or each pair of cylinders has one, rather than one for all four - this would explain the lack of power, one failed so you are running on 2 or max 3 cylinders but the car keeps on running roughly. Odd how no CEL however would assume the resultant bad emissions might have flagged this.
Fuel issues may be more difficult to diagnose, anything from a failing pump not supplying enough fuel, perhaps even dodgy connections to the pump, that sort of thing.
If this happens again and it keeps on running, assuming access, try pulling spark plug leads individually (use gloves or a rag!) to check for electrics issues. Perhaps pre-remove any engine covers if that is possible and drive without to make it easier.
None above is VW specific advice just general.
Hard to tell which or why. If it kept running lumpily till you turned it off yourself, like it was running on less than 4 cylinders, then probably coil pack, they can give problems when hot then are OK when they cool down. Assuming that either each cylinder has one, or each pair of cylinders has one, rather than one for all four - this would explain the lack of power, one failed so you are running on 2 or max 3 cylinders but the car keeps on running roughly. Odd how no CEL however would assume the resultant bad emissions might have flagged this.
Fuel issues may be more difficult to diagnose, anything from a failing pump not supplying enough fuel, perhaps even dodgy connections to the pump, that sort of thing.
If this happens again and it keeps on running, assuming access, try pulling spark plug leads individually (use gloves or a rag!) to check for electrics issues. Perhaps pre-remove any engine covers if that is possible and drive without to make it easier.
None above is VW specific advice just general.
I definitely appreciate any feedback because I really don't know a whole lot. I'm just learning as I go along and reading up on the internet or watching youtube videos.
The thing with the failing ignition coil....if only 1 went bad and I was still running on 3, my car should have still been able to deliver power to the pedal and I could keep driving ...just roughly or with low power. But that's not what I experienced. It was a complete drop off in power to the pedals and within a couple of minutes, there was literally no more push from the car even though the engine was still running. If I didn't pull into a side road, I would have been stranded on the middle of the road because the power was dropping off.
However, it does sound true that me turning off the car and restarting after 5-10 minutes and then driving home perfectly fine at low speeds seems to make sense.
Do you think it will be ok for me to drive at low speeds (say 80km max) for about 100km to get to my service center? I know it's really hard to say, but it's either that or I have to get it towed there or I can just gamble and buy a set of new coil packs and install it myself (which I think is easy) and then drive?
The thing with the failing ignition coil....if only 1 went bad and I was still running on 3, my car should have still been able to deliver power to the pedal and I could keep driving ...just roughly or with low power. But that's not what I experienced. It was a complete drop off in power to the pedals and within a couple of minutes, there was literally no more push from the car even though the engine was still running. If I didn't pull into a side road, I would have been stranded on the middle of the road because the power was dropping off.
However, it does sound true that me turning off the car and restarting after 5-10 minutes and then driving home perfectly fine at low speeds seems to make sense.
Do you think it will be ok for me to drive at low speeds (say 80km max) for about 100km to get to my service center? I know it's really hard to say, but it's either that or I have to get it towed there or I can just gamble and buy a set of new coil packs and install it myself (which I think is easy) and then drive?
MG CHRIS said:
Take it to a garage to find the fault without seeing the car and tracing the fault it's impossible to diagnose on the internet.
Garages charge 80GBP for the use of their diagnostic equipment and then still manage to f
k it up and make it financially worse. The OP's going about this in the correct way.MG CHRIS said:
Take it to a garage to find the fault without seeing the car and tracing the fault it's impossible to diagnose on the internet.
Is the correct answer obviously.Good luck OP - You will get a thoosand different ansers here...
Have you checked your tyre pressures by the way?
StairDominator said:
MG CHRIS said:
Take it to a garage to find the fault without seeing the car and tracing the fault it's impossible to diagnose on the internet.
Garages charge 80GBP for the use of their diagnostic equipment and then still manage to fk it up and make it financially worse. The OP's going about this in the correct way.
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