Car People, especially manual/volkswagen experience

[Blue Apple Herps]

About that.....my CEL has been on since I bought the car 3 1/2 years ago. It's really weird, on rainy days it goes off I've had it checked over and over again and usually the code is for nothing, sometimes it's for my 02 sensor. When someone shuts the light off it takes 1-2 months for it to come back on. My mechanic said my CEL is probably tripping because of emission levels. He has suggested that I get a new 02 sensor, but I haven't yet I never thought about that, perhaps the 02 sensor finally broke for good? Would the 02 sensor affect something that would cause stuttering?

A bad O2 sensor would result in pretty poor gas mileage as well. Is your gas mileage pretty poor? Not sure about stuttering, but bad gas mileage would be one of the giveaways for the O2 sensor. You may want to get the CEL scanned again and see what the code is. Autozone does it for free.

I do know someone with the same engine, but I'm not so sure she would care to share it with me. Are the coilpacks pretty easy to take out and put back in?

Thanks for that VW forum link!

The coilpacks are VERY easy to install/remove. If you can change your oil, you can do the coilpacks. In the MKIV forum on vwvortex, they have a stickied DIY thread that covers everything. Look in there and I think there's a picture step by step of doing coil packs. If you can't find it but convince your friend to try theirs out for 30 minutes, I can take some snap shots of my car and show you how to do it.