She's a Moody Girl In The Winter!

Hi All,

My poor girl is starting to cause me real distress!  Don't get me wrong I don't like the winter either, but this is becoming ridiculous!  

She appears to have developed a habit of cutting out.  It?s strange because I'll be driving along then it will stutter, and if I put my foot on the clutch it completely stalls.  If I sit stationary, it will idle all day, its only when I try to move forward that the problem begins.  I've broke down like this a few times, where I can restart the engine and it always starts but eventually the battery dies.  If I then get a jump, I normally can drive the car home again without issue!  I've been to two mechanics and this is becoming an expensive and aggravating issue. :cry:

It is a suspected fuel starvation issue, so they have changed the fuel pump, inline fuel filter and also found that the distributer cap was showing burning so that got replaced.

It?s got so bad that I've had to resort to using my friends Corsa, which although is not to most tastes, it gets me to work and back a lot more than my golf will right now!

Its a Clipper Karmann 91 Cabby with a 32/34 Webber Carb, If anyone has any advice I would really appreciate it, I've got it booked in for work on Wednesday, so would like some suggestions when the mechanic is clueless! :dontknow:

Cheers,

Dave

Dave, I would check the strainer on the fuel pick-up in the tank.. probably blocked with tiny bits of rust and dirt. Also having had similar problems, the hall effect sensor in the distributor can suffer from broken
wires. They are tiny and bend about as the advance and retard moves on throttle changes thus cutting of the ignition. A unit from any old sirocco/golf/jetta of the same era will do. (not the whole dist, just the sensor.
Keep smiling J.

J,

Thanks for your quick response, I will take both ideas forward to the mechanic.  He's a VW specialist (or so I've heard) so I hope he'll be able to resolve.

It's funny, I really do love driving my golf, even tollerating the abuse from my colleagues with their brand new Honda's and BMW's…but its times when they can't get you to your work that the tempers really get frayed and you wonder if its worth it!

Cheers,

Dave

mine did the same and its not carb icing or the fuel pickup in the tank it is an electrical problem, fuel starvation would not cause it to run on 3 then 2 cylinders it would just splutter the stall and would be more or less constant.

ive changed.. dizzy, and the ignition stabalizer module (on the bulk head) plugs and leads ( just because they aint been changed for a while) so far so good, as before it would start missfireing and get worse till i turned it off or it cut out, when left 2-3 minutes it would start up and run fine. all this was at operating temperature at motorway speeds, common sence points to the hall sensor/ mechanical advance not a bit of rust in the tank,

Pete, Who said anything about it running on 2 or 3 ? J

Hi Guys,

She used to misfire, but that was resolved with the distributor cap change.

I went round a mates (who is a mechanic) at the weekend, he was speaking to a colleague about the issues I've been having.  He said that the fuel reservoir has been known to cause issues by introducing rust into the fuel lines.  To test he put a clamp on the fuel line from the reservoir and asked me to give it a run for a few days.

I gave her a good run yesterday and didn't experience the problems at all.  In my head I felt she wasn't running as fast as normal but I got her up to 80 without any stuttering.  Prior to the clamp I was lucky to get her past 35!

Do you guys think he could be on to something?

Cheers,

D

Jonamat said

Pete, Who said anything about it running on 2 or 3 ? J

 my bad i was reading anothe post on anoother site and got replys mixed up, if it makes yopu all feel better i have traped my fingers in the kitchen draws and snorted chilli powder

I had similar problems to you ,poor running, cutting out (had to call the breakdown people out 4 times!!!). After splitting and cleaning out the carb,blowing air through the fuel lines and carb, she finally started to run so much better. It turned out to be rust from the tank . When I looked at my in line fuel filter you could see the build up of the larger particles. For now I keep my tank topped up and change the in line filter every couple of weeks. A new tank will be fitted when I get the time. Keep smiling even when I was sitting waitng for the breakdown truck I just kept on thinking of summer with the hood down 8)