My VW Golf MK4 started stalling today when idle. Basically drove it to the end of the street and stopped before turning. As I was slowing down it started to stalling and then the wheel locks up. Ive googled on this and some guy said this happened to him on the fast lane of the motorway. Its a shame its a bank hol tomorrow. The only thing is Ive found loads of people with the same problem but theyve all had different solutions. My dad seems to think the air filter is clogged up. Anyone had any experience of this?

Easy enough to check the air filter, though with the big accordion ones, youd have to be incredibly negligent to clog em, as they last forever.

If its the gasoline version, theyre known for having a buggy Bosch MAF, which runs $300 stateside, but I think they put extended warranties of 7 years/100k or something on them. I got mine fully paid for, including installation.

dont worry so much about the steering locking up... you must have power steering right ? when the engine stalls / starts to stall theres not enough revs for the power steering pump... ive driven loads of time after a broken belt etc.. when the powersteering is "offline" just makes it a bit harder to turn

could be the air filter... could be a million other things too tho

need more info... (when its happend a few more times) engine hot/cold what were you doing (exactly) what it happens, noticed anything else strange ?

full service it

Used to happen to my dads old Rover, like knighty says it can be anything & we never found out the cause but things to look at would be:

Dirty petrol filter
Dirty air filter
Idle speed incorrect
Weak sparks
ECU gubbings & voltages which I have no idea about :/
Leaky intake system.

Ive had 3 or 4 times in my car where Im coming up to a junction and take my foot off and the revs drop down to 3-400rpm, like it almost wants to stall - I think itll be cheaper to take to a garage than to start replacing bits at random.

we had this on brand new Mk4s when i 1st worked for the car hire company.  Was normally fixed by swapping out the dizzy cap.

Beaker sounds like hes got a lot of experience with this so going with the distributor cap is prob the answer but as it sounds very like a problem Ive experienced and fixed by just turning a screw on the distributor cap then it may save you some money if Im right.


Had an old car that used to do this (not a golf).  It started with coming up to junctions and then the revs would sound like they were dipping too low then catching up again.  Eventually it reached the point of actualy staling when coming off longer runs on motoraways at slip roads and when it did it once on the tyne bridge in the middle of the day I was lucky to have a car ful of mates to help but was determined to fix it.

Garages were asked to check fuel oil mixture, emissions, etc and generally find out what was going on.  We put through a full service but they couldnt find or easily replicate the problem.

Solution turned out to be the idling revs were too low and the screw had very slowly moved over a couple of years to the point it was borderline.  After the engine had been running a while and got hot it was just on the verge of cutting out as it dropped back to idling.

Setting the idle speed varies from car to car - in my case I just popped the hood and looked for what moved when the accelerator was pressed.  In that case a lever was pulled by a wire to accelerate and then fell back to rest at idle.  There was a little screw that it rested against when idling that stopped it closing the air intake totally.  Turning the screw so the lever couldnt fall as far back meant more air intake and higher revs at idle.  That made all the difference.

If your idling speed is controlled mechanically like this it was on my old car then it might be worth trying.  Not checked on my VW Bora outside but will try and remember to have a look tomorrow as its essentially a mk4 golf anyway.

While it may or may not be the root cause of the problem - increasing your idling revs should either solve it or at least stop the engine idling to nothing at junctions etc.

my R5 was forever doing this, the idle was too low.  turned the screw to get it back to normal, and sure enough a few days later it would idle at 1500

All depended on how the carb was feeling that day, i was forever adjusting it lol. Eventually took the carb apart to clean it out, and it was never the same since lmao.

Well its a petrol 1.4. It happens when the cars cold, so like I said I started it up and went to the end of the street and it stalls. I couldnt really get any further than that as everytime I stopped I had to keep the gas on so I ended up turning back and that still took me a few starts to get back to the drive. The thing I only got it serviced in May and its MOT is on weds which is worrying!

Just to add, when I start it up I can tell its very unstable as its constantly revving up in a seesaw motion. Then when I give it up some gas its fine until I take it off and stalls.

Had the car 4 years now from new and this is the first problem with it.

from what youre saying it definitely sounds like your idling revs are too low when its doing the see-saw ramp up down of revs and needs your foot lightly on the peddle to stop it stalling.

It should be trivial to change the idling revs if you open the bonnet and turn the screw that leaves the air intake more open.

Services dont usually set this for you so they miss it and it tends to work loose over time.  I dont know what exactly where the screw is on the golf but it should be obvious what moves on the outside of the engine when you press the accelerator.  Its that.

or.... because its worse when its cold...

therell be a little pipe going from your carb to your air intake manifold.. its a vacuum tube, which normally does nothing... but when the tick over drops too low, the vacuum at the air intake drops, the carb picks up on this via the vacuum tube and gives it a bit more petrol

look and see if its come off / has a hole in it or somehting

wouldnt a mk4 golf have a more modern injection system rather than carb?

my tip get a new car quick before you have an accident

Quote from: kinkybiatchmy tip get a new car quick before you have an accident

Yer my friend said this has happened to his sisters 206 before cos the steering locked up too she hit a wall.

Quote from: kinkybiatchmy tip get a new car quick before you have an accident

thank you jeremy clarkson