advice sought, please!

[robinchorlton]

afternoon all,

i'd be grateful if anyone could help me with some advice about my golf hatch (03 reg, 1.4l, petrol, 40k on the clock) as i've been experiencing a few problems - i'm not sure if they are related.

back in january i experienced a sudden loss of power whilst driving home from work one evening and a sound like someone had put a bag of gravel in my engine. i limped the car home and my garage replaced three coil packs on the exhaust.

in the last few weeks i've had the following problems:

1. at idle, the engine revs have been getting lower and lower. currently, they are at between 6-8k, the gear stick is juddering at idle and the engine almost sounds as if it is going to stall. there is also a tapping coming from under the bonnet.

2. just this week, i've noticed a regular and similar loss of power to that which i experienced in january. sometimes, whilst driving on the motorway, the power goes, even if i put my foot to the floor there is little effect. then it kicks back in. however, there has been no 'bag of gravel' sound.

3. as if my easter couldn't get worse, whilst driving home in the rain last night, two lights lit up on the dash (abs and the triangle with an arrow going round it - rubbish description i know but i don't have the manual here with me!)

4. finally (!!) for the last year, i've been experiencing a clunking noise from underneath my car everytime i go over a speedbump etc. this appears to be getting worse (although i may be experiencing car paranoia as a result of the above problems). this sounds as if it is coming from forward of the dash. a friend has said it could be loose engine mounts or a wishbone.

as you can probably tell from the tone of my post, i'm no mechanic and my car is already booked in with a local garage next week. however, in the meantime i stumbled onto this site and you all seemed a friendly bunch so absolutely any advice on any or all of the above would be very gratefully received.

many thanks

rob

[kesselrun]

Well, I can probably help with No.4: It sounds like it's the front anti-roll bar that's come loose, causing the clunking noise. Apparently it's very common on the mk4.

I've had mine done twice, first time was the bushes that were replaced and then just recently both front and back were replaced.

HTH

[Tallulah]

problems 1 and 2 are similar to problems i have had recently - timing belt idlers had broken found the bits in the bottom cover - timing was was out, since i have had this fixed all the vibration through the gear stick has disappeared and car now doesn't sound like tractor!! When was your belt done?

[golf tdi 02]

do you know of the fault codes that were displayed throughthe engine management when it went to the garage ???

[robinchorlton]

dear all,

apologies for the delay in replying but many thanks to all for your input. called my garage today and was told that he is going to send it to another garage to get it on the diagnostic so we'll see...

cheers again

[golf tdi 02]

getting the codes read is the first port of call