Good day everyone,
During the weekend, my 2011 VW Jetta (2.0L MPI 6AT 125k miles) began to experience some serious engine trouble. The engine was vibrating pretty badly and struggled to move my car when I pressed the gas. The CEL began to start flashing on and off before staying on. As I don't have a scan tool at home, I planned to see if I could take my car to a nearby auto parts store and have them scan ot for free, but I am afraid it wouldn't be able to make that small journey.
As far as I know, a blinking CEL means the engine is misfiring, but I am unsure as to why because the engine theoretically should be in tip-top shape as it had a full service done to it over the summer.
Thanks for your insights.
Got it scanned and got P0302 code. Employee said bad coil likely. Will replace and report back.
Yep, classic ignition coil symptoms. Will be a good thread to have in the archives.
I fixed the problem. It turns out that the connection between the ignition coil pack and the #2 spark plug wire was corroded, so I replaced all the wires and the ignition coil pack and now the car runs fine.
You could check for any large vacuum leaks like intake manifold or brake booster causing a misfire. If nothing there, In the absence of a scan tool I would probably pull the spark plugs to look for anything obviously amiss. If one or two plugs come out wet with gas (no ignition), swap coils around to see if the problem travels with the coils. A compression test wouldn't hurt. Hopefully it's not an internal engine failure.
