What is wrong with my car?

Asked by Jesush510 Feb 27, 2015 at 01:58 PM about the 2000 Volkswagen Jetta

Question type: Car Customization

Hi I have a jetta Volkswagen 2000 is
been doing good but this past days
sometimes when i try to turn it on it
wont turn on and i have to wait a
little bit then try again and it turns on.
Another thing is that while i drive it
and i slow down or stop it turns off
and it takes about 5-6 min to turn on.
When it turns off the battery pops up
on my dashboard. If You Know what
it is can You Please Help me?Thank
You.

7 Answers

90

Hey there! There's two possible reasons for what you describe, a relatively cheap one and a quite expensive one.... 1: Your battery has reached the end of its lifecycle. You should get a new one with a similar capacity rating like the one you have (it's written on the battery somewhere) and replace it. That's something you can do yourself without too much hazzle, and a battery comes in at about $50 (of course you can always spend more). Until you get one, avoid using anything that needs electricity when the enginess is off (radio, fans, lights....) and try going only longer distances and drive in a lower gear/sports mode. This way the alternator will generate more electricity to feed into the battery. 2: If you're having bad luck, said alternator (that's the generator producing the electricity from the surplus engine power) is broken. Never happened to me and should be rare for car of you age, as alternators last very long. If it's broken, you can try to minimize your electricity consumption (see above) and also recharge your battery between drives. Replacing it would land you in 4-digit-land easily, costing more than the car is worth.

45,325

im guessing if you have never had an alternator done on the car its most likely not charging your system properly any more. What the other guy side is good but Never Ever Ever put anouther battery in it unless you get it from the dealer. It is roughly 120$ for a new battery never been recycled or rebuilt New. Try a new battery first and if it still does this then i would best guess that the alternator is toast. My old car had 360,000 on it before the alternator needed replaced mainly because the interior rusted out and there was nothing left of the spindle the brush sat on.. so yea try these things first and if it does not fix the issue come on back.

90

I put a new battery I bought on ebay into my old Accord two months ago. It came in at 80 $, no dealer involved, and it was factory new. VW branded parts are a lot more expensive while not performing any better, imho. My car's running fine battery-wise since then, and I had never done it before. Just sayin'.

45,325

that's all good but i know my audis and vw's they tend to not like anything but dealer battery's. Some times you get lucky and get one that works but when it comes to specific parts like the battery ill hit up the dealer for it. this one may be good but i would never risk it just to save myself 40$. there is no tax's on the battery its a straight up swap at the dealer. if this was a gm or ford or even a mazda i would say thats the way to go but its a vw so stick with hitting up the dealer for the battery it will save a bunch of heart ack down the road.

1 people found this helpful.
90

Ok, I wasn't aware of that, never had a vw (well, once, as a company car so there was no need to worry about maintenance as my employer would do that. The car (a Rabbit Diesel) broke down at 50k miles.).

45,325

Was probly just from unproper maintaince most people seem to think you can drive a deisle car with out puting a dime of work in it for ages. proper maintaince on the diesle vw's is recomended every 25,000 -30,000 for a tune up.

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