Engine Pinking on 8v GTi

Hi there,

I have just bought a mk1 gti cabriolet, problem is it started pinking and I was told by the previous owner that he always ran it on premium unleaded but on the way up to us from London he put in "normal" unleaded :roll:

On Monday I spoke to a vw mechanic who told me to fill the tank with as much high octane (shell optimax) fuel as I could (it took ?22) and drive it around as usual and by the time the tank runs out (300 miles or so) then the pinking should be getting better and will eventually go.

The mechanic also suggested that the guy might have had fuel sat in the tank for a while (he had it parked up from October until end of Feb) and then put some "normal" fuel into it, and he pointed out that there's no guarantee it hasn't been run on "normal" unleaded instead of premium. On Sunday my husband put in a bottle of octane boost gunk in the tank. I have done near on 100 miles now and it's still not going - sometimes it's quietened down but then gets loud again.

I will run it on Optimax from now on, but I'm just wondering if it should be getting better by now or would it take a few tanks full? Also I read somewhere about the k-jet engines needing a special device (a star something??) any ideas on what to do??

Any help would be appreciated

if it's not improved by the next full tank of fuel I'd say it'd be worth getting the ignition timing checked out

If I remember correctly it should be -6 degrees BTC (before top dead center)

do you know when it was last serviced?


Hope that's of some help anyway

It was serviced in July and then parked up in October until Sunday morning.

Thanks for the advice about the timing, will have the husband look at that if it hasn't gone by the end of the tank… is it easy to do?

with the right tools yes it's very easy to do.

he'll need a timing strobe light and a 13mm spanner.
guess which one is the special tool :mrgreen:

mmm… my husband says the driver is the "special tool"…. so that'd be me then lmao


Will have to find a timing gun at the weekend then… got every other tool you can think of though! lol

throw him out till he behaves. then see who the special tool is :mrgreen:

Update:

The engine doesn't "pink" when it's idling - only on acceleration…I have now put in 2 full tanks of shell v-power and put in STP fuel injector cleaner and STP octane booster and driven about 500 miles since I got it.

Anyway, Mr Diva adjusted the timing tonight and when he retarded it, it started to pink on idle as well as sounding dog rough on acceleration. He then put it back to "normal" and it was back to how it has sounded for the past 2 weeks… he then advanced the timing a little and it did sound a tiny bit better to be honest but on driving it, it was worse again.

The pinking was still there whichever way it was turned - would we expect the pinking to go straight away when we retard the timing or will it sound rough for a while and then go away?

sorry to sound thick but what does pinking sound like :dontknow:

When you accelerate it's like a really loud click click click - it's hard to describe

most likely got the retard/advance the wrong way round. clockwise retards the ignition, anti clockwise advances it. the pinking will not go away by itself. if the engine is lean, it won't help. check oil levels too. it may be the tappets as opposed to pinking due to timing issues. i'd retard the timing by tiny increments untils the pinking stops. you'll have to adjust the idle screw as you do this, as the idle speed will drop as you retard the ignition.

ok, bit the bullet and booked it into a local garage for tomorrow morning….

Not wanting to sound too stooopid… but where exactly is the bit that you need to point the strobe gun at to re-time the engine?

The reason for the question is that the garage just called and said they'd need the car for longer than an hour because it's near the gearbox and they have to take some leads off and then run it through the CO machine? Am totally stumped… we were told to re-time it near the distributor…  :dontknow:

hi, theres a plug on the gearbox. when u pull it off u can see the flywheel for strobe timing. You can time an engine by crank cam etc, dizzy and fly i think. Obviously, all have to be done. It's pinking because it's firing the next lot of fuel too early i think.

could be wrong hehe

Well… garage man came and collected the car… just having a small panic that they might find something else is wrong instead of just pinking…   :cry:

To be honest I've never taken my car into the shop and they havn't found more than 1 problem.

Example:

It went in for a cam belt cover (as my mate who owns the garage can get them cheaper through trade) and found the cam belt tensioner was kerry packard.

It went in for Pads, I found a leaky shock and had new discs.

There's loads more, I've spent over ?1k in the last 10 months keeping my cabby on the road, and it's still going up, it's all about luck of the draw in getting a good one, the only reason I'm spending the cash is because the shell is mint, and that's the main thing these days.

Hope I didn't burst a bubble, but having an old VW becomes a way of life.

36thCrazyFist said

Hope I didn't burst a bubble, but having an old VW becomes a way of life.

Tell me about it :roll: vw's are a way of life for us… we just stomach the cost and get on with it, the older the vehicle the more they seem to chew their way through the ? notes…  

We also run a 1964 splitscreen van, and that's had a fair amount spent on it slamming it to the floor and replacing the engine, but we wouldn't do without the splitty, we all love it - going to Volksworld show in it at the end of the month  

We just sold my daily driver, which was our 1959 rat-ride beetle, and bought the golf a couple of weeks ago, so really don't want anything serious to be wrong with it!

Sounds like you know the plan then anyways, my car is dying at the min, I'm getting fed up with the little bits, I'm planning on keeping it until I have to sell it which I'm hoping is never, so I'm saving at the minute then in the next 3 months it's having major work.

Refurbed Engine + Gearbox
And looking into Custom Injection system

Today I don't have it, because my suspension bottomed out on me 2 days ago, so I'm having coilovers fitted .

I'd love an old splitty or beetle, I always bought a 1703 1.6 with quick shift gti gearbox just before I got my sportline, I still plan on having a few of the aircooled beasts

I really hope your car is alright though, end of the day, it's only money?

Could be worse, you could have my problems lol

Oh no… know what it's like trying to keep a dying car going… try not to get too disheartened about it  :tlc:

On the plus side for us… The garage have just brought it back…

The exhaust manifold gasket has gone and the timing was out slightly… so he's stuffed a load of paste around it as a temporary fix for a couple of weeks and re-timed it too - and he has charged us the massive amount of…..

?10  8O

He's quoted us ?100 to ?150 for all the gaskets to be replaced… but that will have to wait for a couple of weeks

Ah, well if it fixes it then it's not too bad then really, notsure on your quote though, never had it done, but it sounds reasonable, by all gaskets you mean, rocker, head, sump ect?

I get a little dishearted sometimes, but it's only because I hate not being able to drive around in it, it spends about a day a week in the garage at the min lol.

There will be a day when i've replaced everything, and it'll be fine, but until then, I'll have some fun! lol

mine does exactley the same thing ive got the timming bang on and mixture but still pinks when warm but it is drawring air through injector seals got new ones havent fitted yet hopefully this cures problem let you know