Possible metering head fault?

Evening all.

I've had a few issues with my 1.6 GTI over the last few days.
I think I have managed to fix most, however the car no longer starts and I'm getting no fuel to the injectors at all.

The fuel is making it as far as the fuel filter and seems to stop at the metering head and doesn't want to go any further.
I've had a bit of a read around and people keep mentioning carb cleaner so right now it's in pieces and I'm giving it a clean.
Does anybody know what the problem might be and whether there is a definitive way of working out whether it's the metering head or something else after the fuel filter (if there is anything?).

If the thing doesn't work after I've cleaned it up I'd imagine it most likely needs replacing, am I able to use the metering head from a Mk2 8v GTI or even the 16v?

Apologies if this is a bit of a noob post, I'm new to Mk1's and K-JET in general. I've only ever had Digifant Mk2's so I'm a bit lost!

Just to add, my battery did go up in flames the other day which charred the fuel lines leading from the injectors to the metering head and seems to have damaged some of the plastic on the airbox slightly. Would this have affected the metering head in anyway?

Hi mate,

You say the fuel lines to the injectors were 'charred' in the fire, was car running OK before this and has not run since?  If so there is a possibility that the fuel lines may have melted as from memory the lines are teflon inside the stainless overbraid.  Whereabouts are you mate as I have another set of fuel lines you could try out if ya want?

You say you have stripped your metering head/distribution unit….hope you were carefull when you took it apart as if you were not you may struggle to get it to seal upon re-assembly!

Tim

Hi Tim,

I'm in Bristol so quite a way from you, I should have mentioned that I did replace the lines with some that a member on here had for sale. Thanks for the offer anyway mate.
I suppose as the fuel lines to the injectors are ruled out it's going to be within the metering head? Unless the lines I have happen to be blocked but I can't imagine they block easily, especially all of them at once? There were no kinks in them and apart from a bit of dirt on the exterior they seemed to be ok.

I was very careful haha. I took my time with that one as I'm not a fan of fuel related problems anyway, nevermind on a car that I'm still a little bit unfamiliar with.

Hi Adam,

To check the fuel lines and whether the metering head is working you can take off the rubber bellows at the metering head and with a magnet or a pair of pliers carefully pull the flap up, you should get fuel out of all the injectors simultaneously (you need to have the ignition on so that the pump runs, from memory you may need to bridge the fuel pump relay as well…..been a while since I have done it!).  Incidently this is how you test for injector spray pattern and flow rate ;-)

If you get fuel out of the injectors then it would suggest that either the level of the flap in the metering head is not adjusted correctly (which is unlikely as the car was running before you had the problem)  more likely you have a leak somewhere between the inlet manifold and the metering head, have you checked all the rubber bellows for holes and are all jubilee clips tighened?

Tim

Hi Tim,

I'll give the injector test a go tomorrow, I actually found the PDF for that on here earlier but didn't have time to try it!

I have checked for leaks and everything seems to be sealed up correctly. I did notice though that I seem to have knocked off one of the two small breathers that lead from the distributor, I can't seem to find where it goes back either .
One of them leads to the breathers that run over the cam cover and in to the inlet manifold but I can't seem to trace where the other goes.
Could that small breather stop the metering head working correctly?

I'm hoping it's something simple as I've had a look around for metering heads but can't find any for a 1.6, only the 1.8 engines.

Hopefully I can get the thing back on the road for RRG!

When you say breather I think you mean vacuum pipe?  (small bore plastic pipe about 5-6mm dia with overbraided rubber tube either end of it)  These should not effect starting but will effect running as it will cause an air leak to manifold and you will have no vacuum advance potentially depending which one is off.

Managed to find where the little vacuum pipe goes eventually, turns out it was on the back of the inlet manifold.

Also the metering head is working, a friend came over and had a look at everything. We did the injector test and fuel is finally getting to the injectors, no idea why it wasn't before but it's possibly down to me being stupid…  

Right now I'm getting no spark but we may have pin pointed it to the wiring between the dizzy, coil and TCI as some of the black tubing that covers the wires is singed. We've had the multimeter on everything and all the values seem to be fine but as he has that section of loom lying around his garage we're going to replace it to be sure.