Questions and Answers

Bucking Volkswagen Jetta Q. Dear Vincent, I own a 1999 Volkswagen Jetta V-6, four-door, automatic, fuel injection, 82,000 miles and I have had this problem from day one. When the car starts or sometimes goes from high speed to low speed, it bucks.

In the morning when the car's been off for several hours, I start it up and for at least 7 to 10 minutes it keeps jerking as though a ghost is stepping over my foot on the gas pedal. It jerks forward from fuel being injected by itself (I keep my foot at a steady speed) after a while I speed up and it levels off and runs without the jerking motion.

NO ONE HAS BEEN ABLE TO FIND OUT WHY! My mechanic gave up and the Volkswagen people tried to snow me into thinking it needed a tune up, it doesn't. I had that checked out. Do you have any idea what's going on? A year ago they replaced the catalytic converter and a number of sensors. HELP!!

Thank you, Mary Jane

A. If this happens every morning without fail then it should be a fairly simple matter to locate the problem. I would leave the car at the Dealer overnight then drive it with a technician who has the Volkswagen VAG 1551 scan tool connected to the car. When it starts to buck he will be able to capture the readings at that moment and from that be able to see what is wrong.