I hope this isn't bad.

[SHO n OFF]

ok guys, this one has me stumped.

Today I did both O2's on the 91, and replaced the exhaust bolts at the ******, as one was broken.

Took it for a good 10 minute drive, turned it off, got back in about 15 minutes later, and started driving down the street. Everything is great. Car feels ALOT better than it has in the past months. Then all of the sudden, bam, misfire city. So I pull over, take a look at things, damn battery died. ok. Walked a few blocks to my house and got my jetta. Took it to the SHO and jumped it, started right up still misfiring (more like stumbling). got home, swapped batteries, still same thing. Got home, put it back up on the ramps to triple check everything again. Everything is fine. I loosen the bolts on the exhaust, start it, and some of the stumbling goes away. So, took it all the way off and started it, seemed fine. Put it back on nice and tight, stumble again. SO I left it till tomorrow.

Let me say that there is NO CODES while it is stumbling.

I started it up again earlier to move it back into my parking space outside, and smelled gas when I got out. (only had it on for about 10 seconds).

Would a clogged exhaust cause the stumbling? It DOES backfire while stumbling, like its misfiring. The car has NO cats anymore, hasn't for awhile. Am I looking at a coil? DIS maybe? <~~but if it was one of them, wouldn't it throw a CEL?

Any help is appreciated. I wanna try to get this running good by saturday night. Was gonna take it to Dyno Day sunday ($30 for 3 runs. can't beat that!)

 

[SHO n OFF]

Ok so today, cut one of the mufflers off. STILL the same problem. Found an unused bottle of water remover and dumped it in, also added a bottle of injector cleaner. Drove it around for a bit still missing and stumbling, but actually TRYING to run better. Parked it for an hour or two, came out, drove it for about 10minutes....perfectly fine, then bam, same problem. Parked it after I got to my friends house, and when I left, it ran for 20 minutes from my friends house to a car meet perfectly fine. On the way home, fine for 10 then sputtered.

All this STILL with no engine light. (and yes, the bulb still works.)

 

[AREA 91]

It sounds like an electrical problem to me.
It sounds temperature related.
DIS module?

 

[JRA2000TL]

First thing that came to mind to me was DIS as well. Taking a simple approach...you're getting fuel and air (car starts and runs); so the problem is firing. Plugs just don't "go bad" like that. You haven't mentioned changing the plugs/wires so it's not likely that the wires would have been mixed up. Coil pack or DIS would be the only thing I would know to check. Do you have any spares lying around to swap out and see? I know that may seem dumb, but believe it or not, many of us (including me), keep spare parts like that for reasons like this.

 

[SHO n OFF]

it seems to be when the car runs for anywhere between 10-15 minutes, BUT, it did run perfectly fine for over 30minutes last night.

I did brand new plugs, wires, and v/c gaskets about a month and a half ago. I'm going to a junkyard in a bit with a few friends so I'll see if I can grab another DIS or 2 (to be sure) and swap them later to see if that is the problem.

It's just boggling my mind as to how it's misfiring and stumbling with no CEL.

it only started doing this the other day. installed 2 new O2 sensors, then got some gas (93), cuz the tank was pretty empty. I did the fuel filter like 3 weeks ago.

 

[itwonder]

Are you sure the bolt that secures the crossover tube (one the DIS mounts on) to the manifold is in place, and that the ground strap between the back of the intake to the body is in place? you can temporarily wire one of the bottom DIS mounting bolts to battery negative post to check for grounding issues. If grounds check out okay, next step is try swapping DIS.

 

[SHO n OFF]

itwonder: I made sure that strap was on when I triple checked everything after doing the v/c gaskets last month.

Took the car out today, barely had any gas. Got about $15 worth of 93 octane (from a different location that the one the other day). Been driving all day with NO issues at all, not even one stumble.

Could it have just been a bad tank of gas? The car seems perfectly fine.