1997 VW passat GLX switches off when car slows down

Asked by jayIyer Aug 21, 2012 at 05:42 PM about the 1997 Volkswagen Passat 4 Dr GLX V6 Sedan

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

I am driving temporarily my friend's 1997 VW passat GLX. He wants it to be sold soon. I am allowed
limited use of the car till the sale. There are some problems while driving the car and it would be great
if someone can help me figure out an estimate on how much I/my friend would have to spend on this
car before its sold.

It runs quite well for its age. The only problem with it is that it switches off when the car slows down
(basically does not idle). Its difficult to drive it in the city, but easier on the highway.

The owner is expecting around 1500$ for this car and I would like to know how much of an expense he
should be looking at when trying to resolve this idling problem.

Thank you
Jay

3 Answers

61,115

See if putting it in nuetral allows it to stay idleing. If the torque converter clutch stays on it will stall the car when comeing to a stop.

Thanks for the answer Andrew. I tried doing this and it stalls only some-times. But it still does and its totally random. I took this car to a local mechanic today and he said the car needs to be fixed by a VW specific mechanic as it has a computer-software running inside and has to be re-adapted/re-tuned. How much would this usually cost? Any idea? I mean, is it going to be worthwhile spending the money on this car to get a sell price of around 2k (KBB priced it at 3.3k)?

61,115

I would try to clean the egr valve. Your car has the 2.8l v6 right? I belive it is a throttle by wire which means there is no mechanical connection to the throttle.

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