One problem related to emission control has been reported for the 2003 Volkswagen Jetta. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2003 Volkswagen Jetta based on all problems reported for the 2003 Jetta.
Purchased a used 03 vw tdi on 04/05, had the warranty transferred and registered to me at vw. Brief random incidents occurred where throttle would not respond for 1-3 seconds when starting from a stop sign. (this could be detrimental to your health) vw dealer could do nothing without a fault code. This continued for 2 years and 24000 miles. On 02/04/08, I shut the engine off, did an errand, came out and restarted the engine only to have it idle rough then die out, during this time there was no throttle response. I restarted engine 6-7 times, on the 8th time it ran normally. Next day same happened to wife. I loaded car onto a flatbed and delivered to vw dealer 60 miles away. They found the egr throttle valve stuck, removed it, cleaned out built-up carbon. This cost $370. 00 we do not know if these incidents are related.