Serious Misfiring problem

I've got a 87 1.8 Cabriolet that's just started misfiring to the extent that it's undrivable. It started suddenly, when warm, and it happens at around 3,000 rpm in any gear under acceleration. It jumps along as if it's about to stall, but doesn't actually die.

It only happens under load though, it's fine in neutral and It's better with the choke out, but still not running properly so i'm guessing it's something to do with the carb but I'm new to the Mk1s and car maintenance in general and I only have a pretty basic working knowledge of what makes them tick, but would like to try and fix it myself if I can.

If anyone can point me in the right direction i'd be very grateful.

Cheers guys.

what have you tried so far? best to start with a full ignition service new leads, cap, arm, plugs etc.
AVS Car Parts - [The VW - Audi - Seat - Skoda Parts Specialist]

you could have a look at them 1st to see if anything obvious is wrong though, check the plug colours and the condition of cap/arm.

is it running the original 2e2 carb, or a replacement webber? see the 2e2 faq for pics of it that should help you id what it is

Hi, thanks for your help mate.

I've only had the car a few weeks but the ignition leads, distributor cap and arm look relatively new. I've not checked the plugs but I figured if they'd changed the leads they'd probably replace the plugs too, but i'll have a look this weekend. It's a webber carb, and the air filter's pretty clean. The fuel lines a bit cracked around the filter but i've moved the clip below the crack so I think it should be alright, and I checked the fuel pump while i had the filter off and it seemed to work fine, at idle anyway.

I think it's a bit beyond my technical skill! If you have any ideas though, they'd be much appreciated.

try runnign the car at night, and look around the leads/cap/coil for any sparks, also try sprayign a light mist of water over the engien this can sometimes make arcing leads more obvious

hi i have the same problem, i got new leads, plugs aint that old, brand new carb (weber), cap is good and not to old........... any other things i should look at??????????

are they all good quality bits though? i only buy bosch/beru make, cheapo pattern stuff is just pants.

did you replace the rubber flange on the inlet when you put the new webber on? those are prone to splitting

Mine appears to have fixed itself.. which is no consolation to you i'm sure!

I checked and cleaned the sparkplugs. Fitted a warm air duct to the air intake which was missing before. Also I replaced a leaky cooling pipe which i guess could have been spraying and shorting the electrics?

No idea whether any of these things fixed it?! Sorry I can't be more help.

Hi I am also missing the warm air duct pipe, where could I but one from?

I got some here -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/…m439bc7c714#ht_1486wt_952

I wonder if that was it then?! Be interested to hear if it helps!

Maybe the filler neck is rotten and in turn is feeding crap thru to the carb, when our filler neck went it would tick over all day but driving was a different story. Check the inline feul filter for signs of debris and the filler neck itself  

Timing control module was at fault

My misfiring fault's back with a vengeance.  pretty much undrivable now, without the choke all the way out.

Given that the choke is the only thing that make's it drivable can i assume that it's a air/carb problem?

Also it's a still an intermittent fault, sometime's it works fine ( although fairly rarely! ) and sometimes all it takes is turing it off and leaving it for 10 minutes.

91clipper Forgive my ignorance but what do you mean by Timing control module?! Mine's a carb not injection, so the only timing i've got to my knowledge is the timing belt and the distributer?

I think a trip to garage might be in order…

if you look in the scuttle you'll see the module at the passenger side, 7 pin unit. this sorts out the spark control on the electronic ignition cars. worth a try changing this, mk2 golf one works so easy to get. check the carb gasket as well, im assuming this is a webber so remove the webber adaptor and check the gasket underneath. if its perished this is the same as a std mk1/2 1.6-1.8 carby gasket, can get here:
AVS Car Parts - [The VW - Audi - Seat - Skoda Parts Specialist] (look in the mk2 section)

i have just cleared a problem maybe similar
1 check that the petrol ic coming through the fuel reservoir. bolted on the front of the engine from the rocker cover, take the pipe off that runs to the carb and trun the engine over , petrol should come out freely in spurts, also where this pipe is connected to the weber there is a fairly large brass bolt that covers a filter mine was clogged up and restrictng petrol to carb, if you remove clean up with some petrol or buy a new one from webcon