Questions and Answers

Volkswagen Jetta Just Thumping Along Q. Hello Vincent, I came across your troubleshooting page on about.com this morning Feel, Hear, See, Smell after looking for a reason as to why my car might be behaving strangely. I have a 1997 Volkswagen Jetta GL with 124,000 miles on it. I’ve just recently paid the car off so I’m in that very pleasant stage of NO PAYMENTS.

However, I started noticing a problem about a year ago after taking the car to a local mechanic for a general tune up (plugs, rotor, distributor cap, wires, filters, tires, etc.) When I drove the car home from the mechanic, I noticed a thumping sensation when I accelerated (especially uphill) coming from what I believed to be the right front tire.

Thinking I received a bad tire, I took it back to the mechanic twice to see if my suspicions were correct. They replaced the tire and the problem did not go away. I lived with it for a year or so and decided that maybe I should take it to a Volkswagen dealer to have them diagnose it.

They told me I needed a right front axle (and wanted $700.00 to replace it) As I mentioned the car is paid off so I wasn’t willing to spend that much. I took it back to the local mechanic and he replaced the right front axle for $200.00. But that still didn’t fix the problem???

I gave a co-worker a ride the train station a couple of weeks ago and he thought it might have something to do with the transmission. I didn’t think so, but the more I thought about it, the more I think he might be correct. I don’t feel the thumping when I’m coasting with my foot off the accelerator. It’s only when I have my foot on the gas (mainly in gears 3, 4 and 5).

Could you possibly have any clue as to what might be causing the problem? I can’t find anywhere to check the transmission fluid as I believe it may be "self-contained?" Is that correct?

The other fluids appear to be just fine. One other thing I should mention is that every once in a while as I’m turning the wheel all the way to the right, I hear a loud CLUNK coming from the right front side of the car. It usually happens when I either make a sharp right turn into or out of a parking space. Could that be suspension related? And could that be the root of the problem, perhaps? I’ve never had the suspension replaced on the car.

As I mentioned, the miles I’m putting on the car now I consider "gravy" since it’s paid off, but I believe the car has a lot of live left in it. Ideally, I’d like to fix the problem, but I certainly don’t intend on putting an exorbitant amount of cash into it.

Thanks for your consideration and I look forward to hearing your response. Any additional resources or information would be GREATLY appreciated.

Joe

A. If the noise is, indeed, coming from the right front wheel area then I would have to suspect a bad shock or a bad wheel bearing. More likely a bad wheel bearing.