Car feels..."heavy"

[MichelleRoze]

I posted on the TDIclub about thinking my MAF was bad. When I unplugged it, it got worse. My boost seems a bit lack luster lately. Well, had it scanned with a Vag Com. No codes what-so-ever. Which I should be happy about...but I'm not. Cause I feel like there is something wrong. So, we set my tranny to touring mode and turned off the automatic adjusting...whatever it does. So it'll STAY in touring mode. It shifted faster, seemed a bit more peppy...but something still isn't right. The last couple days I've been driving it, it's felt heavy. Almost like I had a full load in the back and whenever I let off the accelerator, mph would drop! I feel like there is a lot of drag in the rear of the car. And trying to keep up with other vehicles on the highways seems almost impossible unless I get up to 80/85mph, then it feels like the weight is gone. Handling has been crap. I know my suspension is on the fritz...and I'm working on getting a replacement.

Before the Vag Com fix, when I would try to quickly accelerate, the engine would rev up to 4K RPM (sometimes red line) before shifting. When accelerating on the highway, I got up to 4.5 RPM at 80/85 before it shifted.

The car has had the turbo and intake cleaned within the year. N75 valve was replaced, air filter has another 20K to go, tranny filter has another 10K or 15K to go, fuel filter is due in less than 1K.

Any thoughts? 139K and counting on the car. I know the automatic is due to fail at any time. I'll be doing the filter/fluid change soon, hoping that might do something. lol I was wondering if a bad Cat. Converter would cause weird issues like this? I'd be willing to straight pipe it.

[Toad]

Do you use your parking brake at all? My rear calipers would lock up when I had my bug, an the colder it was the worsae it got. Its not fun. Jack up the rear of your car and test if your reare tires spin freely

[MichelleRoze]

I use my parking brake every time I park. I've had them checked not too long ago and they seemed ok.

[kaiser]

kinda sounds like a clogged up intake/egr.

needs a good "hoeing out".

[DZLBUG]

I would double check to make sure that none of your brakes are dragging.

A clogged cat would do it as well, my Chevy truck acted like that when the cat was plugged. Based on some of the pics of your car that you posted, I'm leaning towards a soot-clogged cat. What nozzles are you running? Did you get them pop-tested? You might want to reduce fueling a little either by adaptation with VCDS and/or hammer mod. With soot like you're putting out, the EGT's are likely a little high.

[MichelleRoze]

The nozzles are from a manual transmission engine. I don't know if they were pop tested....I'm assuming so since Landon put them in for me, and he kept doing some kind of test to make sure the fuel was coming out accurately or something.

I don't feel like I'm putting out that much soot. I mean, when I take off, there is little to no soot coming out. Yet, when I go to wash my car, well as you see in the pics, there is quite a bit of soot. Not sure why.

[DZLBUG]

Okay...so you shouldn't be over-fueling too bad, but I would still suspect a clogged cat.

[MichelleRoze]

Hmm...wonder if Wagen Works would do a straight pipe for me....

[FarrisK]

Originally Posted by MichelleRoze

Hmm...wonder if Wagen Works would do a straight pipe for me....

Be careful saying that around here, there are some people that will viciously attack you for it.

[70autostick]

Originally Posted by MichelleRoze

Hmm...wonder if Wagen Works would do a straight pipe for me....

Maybe I should snap a few shots... I haven't had cat. issues for a while

[DZLBUG]

I'm chopping my cat off pretty soon. I don't care who doesn't like it.

[MichelleRoze]

really? I didn't think anyone who owns a TDI would get upset about a cat delete. Seems to be a common thing to do, at least on the TDIclub that is. I just don't know if I want the added noise, though it doesn't seem to be too much louder, but still, I already get looks for no muffler. And well, cops in GA can be real a-holes sometimes. I got pulled over for my TDIclub license plate frame covering over 1/2 of my county sticker didn't get a ticket, but still!! And not to go completely off topic (but it is my thread and I will. lol) what is the point of county stickers anyway? Why does it matter?

[Toad]

Because you can be all snobby that you live in a better county. And I would love my plate to say cow eater on it... but I don't live in that county

[DZLBUG]

Originally Posted by MichelleRoze

really? I didn't think anyone who owns a TDI would get upset about a cat delete. Seems to be a common thing to do, at least on the TDIclub that is. I just don't know if I want the added noise, though it doesn't seem to be too much louder, but still, I already get looks for no muffler. And well, cops in GA can be real a-holes sometimes. I got pulled over for my TDIclub license plate frame covering over 1/2 of my county sticker didn't get a ticket, but still!! And not to go completely off topic (but it is my thread and I will. lol) what is the point of county stickers anyway? Why does it matter?

I can think of at least one TDI owner here who might get upset...cough cough mrchaotica cough...and there are a number of people who get offended over on TDIclub too. Any discussion of it over there is not allowed. People seem to get by with it as long as that is not the only discussion topic.

It probably will be too loud for your tastes...particularly with the automatic transmission. The shift points and slippage and TC locking/unlocking makes for some odd sounds and more load on the engine. You could put some sort of straight through muffler (with lots of packing) either in its place or back at the rear of the car to get sound levels similar to what you have now.

[MichelleRoze]

Originally Posted by DZLBUG

I can think of at least one TDI owner here who might get upset...cough cough mrchaotica cough...and there are a number of people who get offended over on TDIclub too. Any discussion of it over there is not allowed. People seem to get by with it as long as that is not the only discussion topic.

It probably will be too loud for your tastes...particularly with the automatic transmission. The shift points and slippage and TC locking/unlocking makes for some odd sounds and more load on the engine. You could put some sort of straight through muffler (with lots of packing) either in its place or back at the rear of the car to get sound levels similar to what you have now.

LOL that's true. Well, I might still do it. I mean, I've been without a muffler for a bit...and it hasn't been too bad. I kinda like a little noise considering I'm such a small car and people like to try and run me over.

And no, Gwinnett is not a better county! I'm actually thinking of taking the county sticker off and telling the officer I never got one lol So many crazy "laws" in Georgia. It just hurts my head.

[surferchick2]

I just had to google county sticker and one county fines 140.00 for a faded one. I'd never heard of it.