hi everyone, im after a bit of advice on my 02 reg 1.4 16v elegance.

She never misses a heart beat, but this weekend she has been doing a few weird things.

I did a 5 mile drive, stopped for 2 hours and after that it point blank refused to start. not a battery issue, it was cranking fine, just not starting.

After the third twist of the key it started (just). it sat at 500rpm, coughing a bit for a good ten seconds. The throttle has no effect on the revs.

then it just bucked up its ideas and was fine - it has started first time each time since.

Until today, after 10 miles of driving, when waiting in neutral, the revs were rising and falling between 500 and 1100. the car pulled away ok, but next time i stopped at the lights it did it again.

Any ideas what is going on?? it has 50k miles and is never thrashed.

Quite possibly the coolant temperature sensor, about £10... very common problem in this engine, especially the earlier ones.

sounds like a faulty throttle body tbh

Common faults with this engine, have a search of my recent posts if you like. Surging tickover is a common design flaw. Usual things to try, use super unleaded, give it an Italian tune up with some redex, give the breather hose at the back of the air box a good clean too. Check the condition of the spark plugs, oil and air filter - maybe go as far as an oil and filter change. Clean the throttle body and do a throttle body adaption/re-alignment (need to do this at a VW independent, main dealer or somewhere else that has a VW computer). I'd also point the finger at the temperature sensor if you have trouble with warm starts, but you say that you have a break of 2 hours before re-starting so that ought to have allowed things to cool down again. A cheap fix and worth replacing anyway at that age and mileage if it has never been changed. When was the cam belt last replaced?