1999 Volkswagen Jetta Vehicle speed control Problems

“I was driving my 1999 vw Jetta at highway speeds, and it suddenly began to accelerate. I shifted the car into neutral, and the engine continued to rev to the redline. I then tapped the gas pedal and the throttle released. My wife had the same problem on a side road. The car began to accelerate, and she applied the brakes but could not stop the car. She turned the ignition off and was able to stop safely using the emergency brake.”

“While driving on rt. 495 near exit 19, I took my foot off the accelerator and I felt my speed continue to increase. I stepped on the brake and my speed continued to increase. I downshifted and when I let the clutch out we really took off. Depressing the brake had no effect. With the clutch depressed, managed to pull on to the shoulder and stopped. As I reached for the key, the engine shuddered and died. I was unable to restart the car and had to be towed. The result of this incident was that the engine self-destructed and had to be replaced. …”

“While driving at any speed, under any acceleration, accelerator pedal fails and the vehicle's throttle does not respond. Once while driving 70 MPH on the e-way, vehicle began decelerating as if gas pedal were not depressed and I had to quickly pull over to shoulder to avoid being stranded in the middle of e-way. Another time I pulled out into heavy traffic and accelerator pedal failed, nearly causing a serious accident. Both times, epc light illuminated in dash cluster - I was able to reset the problem by shutting vehicle off and restarting engine. …”

“While driving at various speeds: the vehicle loses speed control (acceleration pedal non-responsive), the epc sensor light turns on, and the engine light turns on. Without speed control I must quickly maneuver to the shoulder to avoid obstruction of free-flowing traffic. If I shut the engine off and turn it on again, the vehicle regains speed control until the next occurrence (there is no pattern). My mechanics handheld computer has identified an intermittent problem with the throttle body , which is a by-wire speed control system. …”

“The vw vehicle is programmed to cripple the engine performance and speed in case of an epc fault. Any fault causing a rich or lean condition will cause this limp mode . This is a safety issue especially people on the highway going 65-75mph and a 80,000 pound tractor trailer behind them as one person experienced. There are too many non-vital component failures to list that can cause this fault. I refer to non-vital meaning the component failure will not harm the driver of the car. The fault light indication isn't enough? …”