89 CABRIO GTI, FUEL/STARTING PROBS

bump

whats the result now matey

tried the warm up regulator yet?

Out of time and patience, the car's now at Deutche Marques, german car specialists in Doncaster, and they say it's running OK now, just needs fine tuning and an MOT, but they are a bit busy with other jobs at the moment. Should have more news next week.

Work still planned:
change rear bushes to polybushes, fit new rear shocks, renovate suspension/brake components(rear) and fuel tank.

professional respray
professional leather re trim
new 15 inch alloys/tyres.

Most of this probably over the winter…..

HAVE GOT THE CAR BACK AT LAST, BUT DEUTCH MARKS HAVE LET ME DOWN. THEY KEPT FOBBIN ME OFF SAYING THAT THEY COULDN'T GET THE CAR TUNED PROPERLY (MACHINE BROKEN ETC…ETC….). AFTER THE BEST PART OF THREE MONTHS I'VE BEEN AND COLLECTED THE CAR AND BROUGHT IT HOME.

IT WILL START, BUT RUNS ROUGH/NOISY, AND IS DIFFICULT TO DRIVE, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT WARMS UP, AND IS UP AND DOWN WITH THE IDLE AND KEEPS STALLING. THERE IS NO POWER WHEN I TRY AND ACCELERATE, JUST A SLOW BUILD UP IN SPEED, AND A LOT OF VIBRATION…………….

ANYBODY KNOW ANY 'REAL' WHIZZ TUNER/MECHANICS WHO WILL BE ABLE TO HELP GET THIS OLD LADY SINGING AGAIN…?, YORKSHIRE AREA.

THANKS

MARKYMARK

where in yorkshire ?

It sounds like a similar issue to mine. You ideally need to have the car in its 'fault' condition so you can do tests on it. The best test to do would be fuel pressure test while under load, while the fault is there.

I looked at buying a fuel pressure gauge but they are very pricey, so I 'took a guess' at the fuel pump, which was the faulty part but the root cause was that the fuel tank was full of rusty/flaking metal, due to the car being worked on and the fuel stored in an old, metal, rusty, fuel can.

Is the fuel pump noisy or quiet?

I live in Brampton Bierlow, near Rotherham/Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

I have already replaced the fuel pump with a new Bosch item, with only noticeable sound being the priming for a couple of seconds when you switch on the ignition.

The car will start reasonably easily, and after a very rough twenty seconds or so will settle into a not too bad idle, at about the right speed, and the car will rev quite freely, and sounds quite sweet.
When the car gets warm the revs drop and the car nearly stalls then the revs start searching/dropping etc..and occasionally settles into a steady low idle. There is a terrible vibration resonating around the front of the car(possibly the bumper carrier beams that enter the chassis).
Try and drive the car and the revs just won't come when I want them, to set off smoothly, so all you get is vibration and lots of hesitation. The car will move slowly forward, whils you keep raising the revs by dipping the clutch…………….
i'm taking her down to D & G motors at Wath, who have a decent tuning set up, to see if they can identify the problem(s)…that's Monday 2nd Oct.
We'll see what happens from there…………..

If only I could take the running gear from my Octavia VRS and transplant it into the golf, it would drive great…………………..

Markymark

Sounds like a warm up regulator problem to me but any decent tuning place should ba able to diagnose the problem.

After fitting a new cylinder head i had this problem with no pressure to injectors, and even though i knew there was fuel in the tank, enough to get it going, as a last result i put a gallon in , it then fired first time. i now think that there is a crap in the fuel tank pick up pump, as it is running rough and stops the odd time but after a minute starts, i think after changing fuel neck rust entered tank.

D & G MOTORS HAVE SAID THAT ALL THE ANCILLARY PARTS SEEM OK, AND THAT THE PROBLEM MOST LIKELY STEMS FROM THE CYLINDER HEAD, POSSIBLY THE HIGH LIFT CAM?????? THE ANALYSER HAS SHOWN A VERY HIGH LEVEL OF HYDROCARBONS COMING OUT OF THE EXHAUST(UNBURNT FUEL). COULD BE ONE OR MORE VALVES NOT CLOSING PROPERLY. THE SPARK PLUGS ARE THE WRONG GRADE TOO (THANKS VWPARTS.CO.UK!!!!!). ADVISED TO REMOVE CYLINDER HEAD, CHECK THE VALVES ARE CLOSING AND NOT BENT ETC….PUT ORIGINAL CAMSHAFT BACK IN, CHANGE SPARK PLUGS AND TAKE IT FROM THERE.
THE VIBRATION IS DOWN TO THE POLYURETHANE ENGINE MOUNTING INSERTS I FITTED(TOO HARD) WITH THE 'PROTHANE' POLYBUSHES….

I HAVE TAKEN THE HEAD OFF, THE VALVES SEEM OK AND DON'T LEAK, HAVE PUT STANDARD CAM BACK ON, CHANGED PLUGS.  WILL SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I PUT THE HEAD BACK ON ON MY NEXT DAY OFF.

ONE YEAR ON AND STILL NOT IN USE ARGGHH!!!! :x

MARKYMARK

 
Oh my god! LEAVE THE ENGINE ALONE BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE GOES WRONG! For those of you who dont know I am the owner of the afore mentioned Deutsche Mark who had this car in at our garage for 3 months. Markymark, you have neglected to tell these people that we diagnosed several faults with the engine, all your doing!! The metering head had been tampered with, cam timing was 180 degrees out, the cam shaft pulley was back to front and fuel feed and return pipes were the wrong way round (HENCE NO FUEL PRESSURE!!!). We sorted all this out and, as you mentioned, we were unable to tune it as our gas analyser was out of order for some time - Its the truth! no fobbing off required! We were told there was no rush and did our best to get it right without the analyser. We also only billed you for 2 hours labour despite the fact that we spent over 3 weeks on and off on this car. Oh and we let you take the car away from our workshop WITHOUT PAYING as we were on holiday so our employee was dealing with it. Please get in touch with me ASAP to settle the bill!!!!!! You also knew when you came to collect it that it was not where near perfect but you were happy enough to take it home anyway. I think a big old slice of humble pie is required as everything that was wrong with that car is down to your tampering. Save some pennies and leave it to the proffesionals before the engine is rendered useless.

You can check valves are sealing properly by doing a compression test, surely? Thus saving the hassle of removing the head. As usual when I advise to do a compression test, its actually better to do a proper cylinder leakdown test, if you have the kit…

Spark + fuel + compression + everything happening at the right time

should make an engine run.

NOW NOW QuickChick.  If you read what I wrote you will see that my major gripe is the length of time you had the car, and I was told quite early on that your analyser wasn't working and that you would take the car round to another garage nearby to get it checked out, then I waited another 2 months……….maybe this is just a customer service issue. I was very pleased that you had got the car 'running'.  Now for my admissions
Yes  I put the pulley on the wrong way around(there are timing marks on both sides-easy mistake for a novice)
Yes I put the fuel lines the wrong way around, having tried them the right way round first.
No I didn't touch the metering head. The injection assembly was removed as a whole and not dismantled at all.

I was told that the fuel relay was faulty and was replaced.

I offered to pay when I collected the car, but your mechanic said you would send me a bill for the three hours labour…….I'm still waiting…..
You send it and I'll pay it, gladly, or I'll call in sometime next week and sort it out, preferably when you are there so I can have a chat. Let me know.. :notworthy:

Markymark there is a PM heading your way. We did try to get the car to another garage to use their analyser but it was running so unpredictabley we didnt wanna take the chance in case it broke down on way round. Apologies for length of time but we were under the impression there was no rush.