Car bucks and jerks when cold below 2000 rpm

[Reedy]

Car splutters/mini misfire at low rpm

I have developed or only just noticed this spluttering or very little misfires I have at low rpm's. When cruising in 6th doing 60klm/hr the revs sit at 1400. It's at this point the car begins to splutter only very slightly but noticeable. This happens also when I just sit and just rev the car to 1400 rpm. It will kind of cough now and again with a little splutter, as soon as I add more throttle past 1800 rpm you can here the whole car just run smooth. These symptoms are worse when the engine is cold.
The fuel filter and plugs are less than 15000klm old and its not the coils as I've put an old set on I have and it still does it. The car pulls hard with no misfires, it just seems to be at these low rpm's, you can also see the rev counter needle wobble at these low revs and as soon as you hit 2000rpms smooth out.
I'm going to check the plugs today and there gap but with this problem only being at certain rpm's I can't see it being them.
Any ideas what else it could be or has anyone else had the same issue. The car seems to idle ok but has the rough idle when cold as it sits right at the 1400rpm mark. I've just done over 100000klm now and just had the throttle body cleaned by VW with no success.

Thanks for your help.
Adam.

[Lucas_R]

With those sort of km's you could be starting to see symptoms of carbon buildup on the injectors and intake valves. If an injector is partially blocked then it could result in a slight miss.

For the sake of 30 mins of your time and only a few dollars, i would try either of the following. You will need a friend to rev the engine slightly while you spray the liquid into the intake:

- Buy some Subaru upper engine cleaner, spray it in via your inlet temp sensor (see links below to show where this is) leave it for 10-15mins to soak, and then start the engine.
- Use some water in a spray bottle on a very fine mist and spray that in the inlet temp sensor hole while the engine is running. The steam clean effect will help clean the carbon.

Intake cleaning spray thread

Subaru Upper Cylinder Engine Cleaner - Page 3

If carbon turns out to be your issue then the methods described above may reduce or remove the symptoms for a short while. Given the higher km's on your car, your best bet would be to get your inlet manifold removed and have the carbon cleaned out professionally with crushed walnut shells under high pressure.

[Brooke3844]

Car also splutters.

I have the same problem with my car!
I've got a 2009 118tsi Golf, I noticed a little while ago now when I started it up it would splutter for that 30 seconds or so while it was revving at a slightly higher rpm than when idling.

I've taken it back to the dealership where I bought it twice now for the same problem and they have found no faults. It doesn't do it every single time it starts which is making it hard to figure out whats going on.

Now it's gotten worse and it kind of shakes when I'm sitting idle and the exhaust fault or engine light flashes up intermittently every now and again.

I have just picked the car up from the dealer today, again being told that they cannot find any faults.

I'm now getting a bit tired of the no answers...

[Reedy]

Main Steelers could find no faults and checked the quality of my fuel which was ok.
Did the Subaru upper engine clean. I only had one big puff of smoke when I started the car, I thought there would be more. Car seems quieter and smoother but I still have this little cough at low rpm's.
It's only just noticeable so think I can put up with it or just not cruise with the revs so low.
Thanks again.

[Umai Naa!!]

It should log a missfire code on the relevent cylinder, or at the very least, it'll have counted the amount of missfires occurred on that cylinder.

[cktsi]

Wow. That is very odd for a 3 yr old car. The only other experience i can offer was with my mk5 Golf. I once had very rough engine running and had something called a lambda probe replaced. I think it measured oxygen somewhere in the exhaust and was an input for the ECU. That fixed the problem.

Perhaps there is some faulty sensor such as the Lambda probe?

[dimi_108]

Apologies for the thread revival but i'm currently getting the same issue here in my mrs 11' GTI.

Like OP described, no error codes at all, it only happens when the car is cold. Once the car has been warmed up, the slight misfire or "jerk" is completely gone and everything is back to normal.

I've booked the car in to get looked at on Saturday at Top One.
Hopefully it can be resolved easily.

First thing I was thinking was it was the spark plugs then I read it could be the engine temp sensor and now i've read that another person has had one of the injectors replaced and it's now sorted?

Is it safe to drive the car for the next few days until it goes in for service? Or is it going to go fu*ken BOOM on the M5 motorway on my way home from work?

[The One]

Apologies for the thread revival but i'm currently getting the same issue here in my mrs 11' GTI.

Like OP described, no error codes at all, it only happens when the car is cold. Once the car has been warmed up, the slight misfire or "jerk" is completely gone and everything is back to normal.

I've booked the car in to get looked at on Saturday at Top One.
Hopefully it can be resolved easily.

First thing I was thinking was it was the spark plugs then I read it could be the engine temp sensor and now i've read that another person has had one of the injectors replaced and it's now sorted?

Is it safe to drive the car for the next few days until it goes in for service? Or is it going to go fu*ken BOOM on the M5 motorway on my way home from work?

Best thing to do is test another GTI when cold, you will find it will do the same thing. It's part of the warm up phase.

[Reedy]

Like that this thread is back to life. I still have this issue although I've never tried to fix it except for the coolant temp sensor and this did nothing. I'm booked on to VW tomorrow for my other issue that is a low rpm stutter and engine rattle when I press the clutch so I will also mention this. I am using nearly 1 litre per 100klm of fuel more than I used to. I could nearly get 800 klm and now I'm lucky if I get 700 klm. This might be related to either issue I have. I will keep both my threads informed.

[dimi_108]

Thanks for the replies and pm's The One.

Reedy, i'm getting the same as you in regards to the fuel consumption. Ever since the misfiring/jerking on cold started I also noticed my average fuel consumption jumped from 7.5l per 100 km to 8.5-9.5l per 100km.

Part of me wants to believe it's normal behaviour but I'm pretty syre it wasn't doing the "jerking" on cold before.

Btw when's the last time you changed your oil Reedy? Because I know my GTI is due for a service in the next 500km. I wonder if it has anything to do with having old oil running in the engine.
Because one thing's for sure (and as The One mentioned to me via PM) the jerking completely disappears after the oil temp hits 90 degrees celsius. And he's spot on right. Once my car gets to 90 degrees, everything is normal. Strange.

Keep us updated with how you go Reedy.

[rayb3na_]

My car does this too. But only on half or 3/4 throttle. I've noticed the the boost will also fluctuate as the car seems to "flutter" I've had new plugs and coilpacks put in since the service so doubtful its that. Theres no hesitation or stutter when im on WOT though?

[Reedy]

Going to wait until the new intake manifold is in and see what difference there is if any, then I'll try and tackle this issue, hopefully they are related. See my other threads about hydronic lifters and car splutters at low rpm.

[Reedy]

Intake manifold. See my hydraulic lifter thread for ore info.

[dimi_108]

Hey Reedy, was it your intake manifold that was causing the issue in this thread?

[Reedy]

Hey mate, my new intake goes in on Monday. I'll let you know the morning after how it drives but I'm pretty sure it's all related. Let you know Tuesday morning.