Suggestions of possible problem/solutions to my Bug

Okay I want to state that I have been reading thread after thread on this site to get a possible idea of what could be wrong with mine when it dawned on me to join and write my own thread about what is going on with me car! lol Anyways....

My 2001 Yellow Beetle, which I love, is being a pain in the butt. I will admit that I'm a young college student that does not know much about cars and I try my best to educate myself about my car internally, but when it comes to the internals of a car it all still seems to be a foreign language to me. So I want to apologize in advance if I don't know the technical names, in and outs of things with my car, and just seem plain dumb to car language. I can tell when my car is fine and when it's not though! lol Anyways to get back to what is going on with my car to the best of my knowledge....

Last week my car started to rough idle and while driving my check engine light came on. Which when I was stopped at a stop light you could tell that it was idling between the lower rpm range. Nothing else happened and no other lights came on. I made sure not to stay out long, since I didn't know what was going on. The next day when I went to go turn my car on and see if the check engine light was still staying on the car acted like it was going to start up and all the lights blinked and my car shut off. I tried it again and my car started but the check engine light was on and so was my battery light. When I tried starting it again it just did the same thing and shut off. Later on and the next day my car was just completely dead. Nothing worked on it. So I knew my battery was dead. I made an appointment with Village Motor Werks, within Raleigh, nc to bring my car in and a towing place. I knew I could possibly get my car jump started but I didn't want to run the risk of trying to drive it there and my car breaking down on the way there. It only cost my $75 to tow it anyways. Anyways they got the car started and it is still doing the rough idle thing but my engine light wasn't on anymore they said. Their diagnostic machine that they hooked up to my car is saying there is a "throttle valve control module issue". I'm waiting on them to call me back because they said they are going to hook it up to another diagnostic machine or something that is going to help them get a more accurate idea of what exactly is going on. When I was on the phone with them they were telling me that it is possible that I need my engine control module reprogrammed, but they wanted to do another diagnostic check on my car before saying for sure that I need to take it to the dealer to get that done since they don't have the equipment to do that specific thing. So as of right now that is where I am at with my car.


I'm trying not to worry or get upset, I understand things happen to cars and things need to get fixed, but it has really been one thing after another with this beetle since it was bought for me in early 2008. I absolutely love my yellow beetle, it was the car that I have always wanted as a first car, I just wish it could go a full year without something going totally wrong with it. Besides taking it in for the required tune ups and oil changes and the regular things needed to be done the radiator has been replaced, the alternator, and most recently in late November 2010 I had to get a head gasket replaced because it blew. I have a whole list of little things that were replaced on it when the VW dealership replaced my head gasket and all related components to it. Between then and now this car has ran completely fine from what I can tell because before when I had problems with it the check engine light would come on and it would have idling issues when started up and driving. I really do love this car but when the repairs that have all seem to be happening one right after another varying in months of each other are adding up to the amount this car is worth it just gets frustrating. I really do try to take car of my car and make sure it gets the oil change and tune ups regularly and I put gas in it when needed. I just pray and hope there isn't anything majorly wrong with my car this time around.

If anyone reads all of this and gets to this point I want to thank you for taking the time to read it and hopefully you could give me some better insight from what I have said to what it could be possibly.