Things to do when buying a FI car or when problems occur

All these things are very cheap/free to do and will get you a whole lot closer to solving your Fuel Injected Engine problems

When you buy:

• Change cambelt
  Reshim tappets
  Clean throttle body and butterflies
  Clean air flap
  Check and adjust mixture
  Check correct idle screw has been used for idle
  Full Service
  Clean filter in back of pump
  Change/Clean up Crank Case Oil Breather[/list:u]
  
  When you have running problems:
  
  • Clean filter in back of pump
    Check and adjust mixture
    Do prowler's injector test
    Do a pump flow test
    Do an injector leak down test
    Test aux air valve
    Check operation of cold start injector and thermo time switch
    Remove fuel pump and accumulator and get any water out
    Drain tank and remove crud
    Later cabs - clean lift pump filter[/list:u]
    
    Anybody got anything else to add?
    
    Would be worth expanding these with how to's and could be added as a guide.  Any volunteers (Prowler I know you love this stuff  :wink: )

Just a bit of a question really, when you reshim the tappets, what do you do if you can't go any thicker/thinner on the backet size? I know my tappet's will need doing soon and am worried I won't be able to get the right size  :dontknow:

is the intention of this just for the fuel side of things? if not always worth going over the ignition and more offen than not replacing the dizzy cap

forgot to add, That's a very useful post  :y:

I think it's worth dooing all the FREE stuff first before shelling out on cap leads and coil - best part of ?50 - and probably worth doing anyway. Them maybe fit a cap then leads and lastly a coil.

Need to sequence this list from free and easy/most likely to fix to hard/expensive/least likely

If you have wear outside the shim range you'll need new buckets and or cam (probably need a head overhaul too) - never seen them this bad ever.  Biggest shim I've fitted was 3.8mm I think and they go up to 4.1mm I think??

Don't forget Change/Clean up Crank Case Oil Breather - so often forgotten, causes big hassle on VW motors…

And I thought I was doing well having done the cambelt and service! Stuck on the tappets howerver 'cos I can't work out whether or not mine has hydraulic tappets or not,  ops:  please help.

I also want to clean all the breathers before I take it for a tune, Is the crankcase breather you mentioned the metal pipe which appears to come up out of the sump on the right hand side if you were looking down from the front of the car?

If so, is it easy to get off?

Thanks, toad.

Steve - forgot your favorite     I'll add it to the things to do when you buy bit

Love it :clap:
should be in the 'Servicing' section of the Guides

Steve

crazyquiff said

   (Prowler I know you love this stuff  :wink: )

….I do…..but at the moment I have a large corporation demanding some results - and you DO NOT keep the Mafioso waiting !!!! I'll be back soon.

Thought I'd mention..

If your not getting a spark from the coil… and the voltage is all wrong on the LT wiring (I was getting 4v either side of the coil), It could well be the Fuse box! as I've now found out

Phill looking at doing my tappets, solid lifters, iam a bit hesitant but i like doing those sort of things. Question for you what tools do i need and where do i get them and how do you work out the sizes of the shims and work out what sizes to buy?. I have seen posts on this matter but some what confusing.

Haynes gives a reasonable guide on how to do it I think.

I got some 10mm shuare bar and bent it to make a bucket hold down tool.

Also use a small screwdriver and a magnetic pickup thingy

satelliteone - what year is your car? I don't think later cab's have shims?
I think they just have the hydraulic tappets that you replace when they get noisy? Mine need doing but havent tackled the job yet.

Mk1 Haynes manual doesn't cover the hydraulic type setup but the manual for the Mk2 does.

I need to buy a haynes manual and have a 1990 Cab, which one covers this model or do I need a Mk2 manual as well?

Very confused  

Buy an old print circa '92 for the mk1 and it'll cover the cab

my 92 cab has hydraulic tappets, but my old skool 83 GLi cab has bucket and shims…. so at some point they changed on the cabs…

details of how to check both are as follows…

Guide: How to clean/service your tappets | VW Vortex - Volkswagen Forum
This guide is for hydraulic tappets, mk1 golfs had bucket and shim.


VALVE ADJUSTMENT - 8V SOLID LIFTER ENGINES
http://www.driversfound.com/scirocco/techtips/engine/valveadjustment

The change over from solid to hydro was arround 1985