Wiltshire GTI Specialists

Hi,

I'm a newbie on here and firstly I'd like to say hi to all members. Secondly, does anyone know of a local specialist or anyone in the Wiltshire area who can help me out with my rough idling and hard starting when hot GTI.

I know a lot of what the issues can be but don't want to replace costly parts for no reason.

Garry 

Hi Garry, welcome to the forum. Where in Wiltshire are you? When I had problems with my GTI I struggled to find anyone local who could help even though I have a whole load of mechanic mates who would have trained in the KJET era.
I ended up asking on here, reading a few other posts and sorting it myself.
What sort of issues do you have? I may be able to help. It's quite a basic system and fairly easy to work on.
I'm in Devizes by the way!

Hi Saulty,

Thank you for the reply. I'm the same and I'm a mechanic myself but didn't really do much work on these when I was younger. I'm only in Lyneham. It's running dog rough and hesitating on acceleration and also the tanks holding pressure, I.e there seems to be a blocked breather or something. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Is there any history to the poor running and what's the history of the car (has it been sitting in a garage not running for years or have you been using it regularly with no problems until now?).
Have you tried anything yourself yet? It may just be ignition problems. Does it start and run ok when cold?
I have a tank pressure issue as well and thought I'd solved it once but it's back again! It may just be dowb to the gravity valve behind the the filler cap.
Matt.

Matt,

I'm just on with starting to work stuff out. It was stood for a long time but the previous owner used it has a daily drive. He has replaced a lot of stuff trying to find this fault. 

It just seems to run rough all the time. I'm going to change the gravity valve because that's what I've been thinking. He has spent a lot of time replacing the fuel side even down to injectors but I'm unsure that's the issue. I've only had it a short time and I'm sure it will get fathomed out but it's also good to know people in the local area too lol.

The gravity valve/tank pressure problem probably won't cause running problems but mine was sometimes blowing fuel out of the trumpet vent under the car and you would get a big rush of air and sometimes spatters of fuel when removing the filler cap.
On to the running issues, I would check the timing first and then make sure the ignition side of things are in decent order. Once you're happy with that then move on to the fuel. Common problem on these is that the filler neck rusts and water and rusty bits get into the tank and then sucked through the fuel system. This can damage the whole fuel system. Also common is vacuum leaks which includes the seal on the idle speed screw.
You might need a pressure gauge for the KJET and I used old baby bottles to check the flow on the injectors.
Your storey sounds similar to mine, previous owner replaced loads of bits to unsuccessfully cure a running issue and then left it in the garage for over 7 years! My fuel system is virtually new but it runs ok now!
Good luck and let me know if you need any help or tips!

Thank you Matt, hopefully I will get it sorted. It's my dream car so I don't mind replacing it as I'm keeping it. Yeah that would be great.

I meant to say, get a brown Haynes manual if you don't already have one and a copy of the Bentley manual is also useful. Bentley manuals are harder to come by but I do have a PDF of it. I followed the Haynes step by step proceedure for checking the fuel system.
As for spending the money to get it going, be prepared to dig deep. I reckon I spent over a grand before mine was running (but the wife thinks it was about £400   ) Definitely worth it, great fun to drive even in standard form and keeps up with a lot of modern fairly quick cars. Touch wood, mines also been very reliable and I've done a few long journeys in it now. including a trip to Luton and back last year on one of the hottest days of the year.
I can pop over and have a look at yours if you wish.

Cheers, I will look into getting those. I have a couple of other VW's so I know the heartache they can cause lol. The would be good if you could, maybe stop me going down the wrong rabbit hole lol.

There's an accumulator underneath the car near the fuel pump, it holds the fuel pressure in the system so helps with hot starting.
There's a small screw on the end of the accumulator, if you remove the screw and petrol comes out the accumulator is shot.

looks like this, in the second picture you can see the little screw.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-MK1-Golf-cabriolet-1-8-GTI-K-jet-fuel-injection-accumulator/273625601707?hash=item3fb55b56ab:g:8IgAAOSwiqdbq0SI:rk:5:pf:0


A little video for you to watch… Bosch K-Jetronic (CIS) explained - YouTube

 

Thank you, much appreciated.

Where is the car located, at your house or in a garage/workshop? Do you have any times that suit you for me to pop over?


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Hey buddy. The car is on camp with me. I've stripped some stuff off it and found two fuel pipes kinked which would be restricting fuel. I'm ordering them and see how that goes. I'm pretty much free most of the time but I'll see how I get on with the new fuel pipes.

Let me know how you get on and then we can arrange something.


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Cheers buddy. I've ordered bits and they should be here some time this week and then I'm building it up over the weekend and doing running gear stuff too. I will let you know how I get on.

How are things going mate, are you making progress?

Hey buddy, sorry I didn't get back to you mate, just been busy. Well I've had all the fuel system out and cleaned all pipes and bits and bobs. It runs so much better but still lumpy on idle.

I've set the timing which was out but waiting on a timing light and Gas Analyser to get it set up perfect. I've been doing all the braking system as well so it stops too. How's you? Enjoy the snow? Thanks for getting back to me.

I'm good thanks, the snow is a pain as we aren't geared up for it in this country but it doesn't bother me that much. How about you?
The good old timing light, I threw mine out years ago because I didn't think I'd ever need it again and had to buy a new one when I got my GTI! I adjusted my mixture by ear, and despite critism on here my CO was almost bang on when I took it for an mot.
A tip for the rear brakes, I found that the best way to adjust them was to take the drum off and adjust it manually and put the drum back on. Keep doing this until the drum is just about touching the shoe. It's a bit of a ball ache bit it made my brakes much better.

I'm pretty fortunate to also have a T4 Syncro, so getting about in the snow is really good fun lol. 

I'm stripping them down and changing all the fitting kit as the shoes are like new but everything else isn't lol. I'm re- piping it and changing the master cylinder but the  brake compensator is shot but can't find one of them anywhere.

I know this is reviving and old post , but Saulty did you solve what was causing fuel to be spat out from the trumpet vent under the car? I'm having this issue but only seems to happen on Hot days when the tank is near full, my only conclusion is faulty gravity valve? Cheers.