I have a manual 98 Ek Hatch and have had a problem with it for a while, at first it was a hole in my radiator hose and it overheated my engine a few times until I fixed it. Now I have a knocking from my gearbox and am currently getting my clutch replaced but the car has been slowly losing a lot of power and I’m not sure if the clutch is the issue. I’ve replaced the battery, Distributor, and spark plug wires and would like to see if I can get some help figuring out what the problem could be.

 

How about checking with a cheap scanner to read any codes..? When the engine overheated, you also may have caused significant damage.

 

I’ll try that once it gets out of the shop, the last time I took my car to a mechanic after that they said the engine was very healthy, could they have just been wrong? I also have an issue where when they car is cold and I haven’t started in a few days, I first start it and it bogs and drops to very low rpms and sometimes when I rev it cold it shuts off. Also are there any cheap scanners you recommend?

 

Check the mechanical timing then the ignition timing with a timing light, If either of these or not correct you will have poor performance!