so, I've resolved some things:
I started the car, opened the hood and listened. I heard a sparking sound, and searched it out. The air intake manifold (I think that is what it is called) swoops over the spark plugs on top of the engine, looking under it I saw a spark coming from the 3rd plug away from the distributer cap.
Looks like that cylinder was missing as the spark was arcing.
I pulled the air intake off, pulled the plug (sounds simple, but required a lot of effort and McGyvering) to find that the plastic cover was ripped. so I pulled it and wrapped it with electrical tape and reassembled everything.
so, now it runs smooth. But apparently the unburnt gasoline vapours were travelling down the exhaust, and exploding inside the muffler which has caused the baffles there to disintigrate. thus the grinding sound.
I am on the lookout for a single plug replacement for cyl #3 and will take the car into Speedy muffler to have the muffler replaced as per their warrenty.
It also appears that my transmission fluid is low (although with the VW, there is no way to check due to the lack of dipstick) so I will have to eat the cost of a checkup.
thanks for all the input!!
---------- Post added at 01:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:28 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by dksuddeth
my ford taurus has this similar sounding issue. the garage I took it to said fuel injector issue. I haven't had it fixed yet because I want a second opinion, but my instincts say your car is probably suffering near the same issue. fuel injection somewhere.
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Fuel injection of a sort: the fuel being injected into the cylinder was not being sparked..... check your plugs if you haven't done so yet!