mk1 golf gti 8v

hi can anyone see if they can solve this one .Recently put my car in for a tune ,the fellow said timing was way out he set up the co2and done done the mixture and said its pretty much now spot on .Ok great so I take it for a drive running round town is ok but as soon as you want acceleration ie 60 mph or more its hesitating on the throttle but if you press down it will go but still hesitating ,also when cold it will start on the button and runs just under 1,000 rpm all the time from cold to normal running temp ,does not drop in revs once at normal temp also once the engine is turned for say 10 min it will take quite a few turns for it to re-fire up . does this sound like my main fuel pump is coming to its last days as ive replaced the lift pump ,filters and fuel lines ,any advice please would appreciated  thanks pete

Did you fit new plugs, dissy cap, rotor arm and HT leads before getting the car tuned and timing set or are they newish?
What type of unleaded are you using, super or normal and did you tell the chap tuning the car what type of fuel you are using?
Your revs sound right to me, mine stays at 950 rpm when then engine is cold or hot.
Problems with hot starting could be down to the accumulator, it's a valve that hold fuel pressure once the engine is turned off, theres lots of info on here about hot starting problems and the accumulator.

Double post...... so deleted...

hi , thanks for the reply the dizzy ,plugs ,rotor arm etc are new about a year or so ago but the car has only did around 300 miles in that time ,regards the fuel i did put £20  worth of super unleaded in it before this bloke looked at it but when i told him he said he would have to adjust the timing but once i picked it up he told me he has set so it runs on normal unleaded as the car was originaley designed to run on leaded so i put some more unleaded init rather than the super u but has made no difference .I have been under the car and undone the tiny screw on the back of the accumalater but no signs of fuel leaking at all .regards the main pump as i mentioned before when cold it will start on the button and straight away runs at around 950 - 1000 rpm  but once it run for a bit then try and re- start it takes  few turns for it to fire up ,only items on the car not replaced on the fuel system are the main puump and accumalater .does the main pump hold fuel thats ready for when you restart and when the pump starts to buzz i know then its struggling but the question is how loud does that buzz got to be as i can hear mine buzzing away if i put my head near the back wheel cant hear it if im standing up next to the car near the pump ,the pump does prime on the turn of the iginition .The pump relay is not a vw relay its a standard one ,but when i remove it its quite warm ! Is that normal ? i dont think im very far from getting this car runningcorrectly been advised to get a fuel pressure test done on it but finding it hard with someone who still uses them !!  sorry to go on but as the tune up was ok im assuming the metering head is ok …thanks pete

the mk1 was designed to run on super unleaded! vw havent needed leaded fuel since the mid 70s.  sounds like you need to find another guy who knows vws to redo the timing, or just do it yourself all you need is a cheap induction timing light and a 10mm spanner

Thanks rubjonny , im surprised at that he seemed to know what he was talking about ,i dont think he has done any work on the older car like the mk1 's for a while and ive always used unleaded with this car i put £20 worth of the super unleaded before it went in his garage and told him that i did , his answer to the running issues was timing was way out and now set it to run on unleaded as it should not on super .So am i best to re set the timing to run on super unleaded and leave it at that and see of any change in the wayy it drives … thanks pete

it depends what he did to it, if he put it back to factory timing then all is well, if he retarded the ignition then you would want to reset it back to factory, or even add a bit more

its dead easy all you do is hook up your inductive timing light over spark plug lead #1 (timing belt end), unscrew the plastic bung from the top of the gearbox bell housing then run engine till warm. disconnect and plug the vacuum pipe to the dizzy then point your light into the hole and look for the marks, you want to see the big diamond lining up. if not loosen the 13mm bolt on the dizzy and twist it slowly till it lines up.

edit: you might want to turn the engine over by hand first till you find the diamond then paint it with tipex so its easier to see!

this is what you should see:

hi rubjonny , I have since spoken to the bloke who did the timing he gave me a print out of the co2 etc and said he did it to the original factory book which he showed me but is happy to put it back on the machine and set it so it runs on super unleaded but he still thinks it should run on unleaded ,and thanks for that pic of the gearbox housing for the timing marks .....pete

only reason you would run a car on leaded fuel is if they dont have hardened valve seats, and VW have had these since some time in mid 70s.  The other thing is to be sure you're runnign it on super unleaded, as normal unleaded has too low RON figures for KJet and you might get engine pinking.

6 degrees is reasonably mild in terms of engine tuning, you can usually get a couple more degrees of advance on them before it starts pinking

if you can find a place that sells 4 star leaded fuel these days then by all means use it if you dont mind killing the environment slightly more than you would runnign super unleaded

if you detune the engine you can run it on normal unleaded, but you'll loose power!

is this a 1.6 or 1.8 actually? 1.6 is set at 0 degrees advance vac line off and plugged. 1.8 is 6 degs. both need super unleaded

There should be a sticker on the door pillar saying "SUPER/PREMIUN MIN 98 RON" might of been removed if the car has been repainted, it's near the tyre pressures on my car. Normal unleaded is 95 RON super unleaded is between 97 to 100 RON depending on where you get it, I did set mine up for normal unleaded but had a lumpy tick over and was down on power so went back to super unleaded.

Looks like this, slightly different ones depending on year of the car.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MK1-Golf-Super-Premium-Petrol-Sticker-263-/181288635487?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item2a35a50c5f
 

Hi ,sorry for my delay in reply ,yes rubjonny mine is a 1.8 8v ,im taking it in again tues morning to be re-adjusted and see how it runs as i said previously ive never really run this golf on superunleaded always used unleaded apart from the odd £20  now and again thinking that it would help clean out the fuel system and mark your right i had a blue cabriolet gti with a stamp on the door pillar saying use 98 octane fuel but my sportline has no stamp at all ,any i will get it changed and see how it goes thanks to the both of you for your help i will let you know if it runs much better ….cheers pete

Fingers crossed for you that it works, let us know how you get on.

ok guys ,sorry im late in replying ,I took my car back to this fella just to re adjust the timing so it runs at 6 degrees ,he had it for a hour or so and said that's the best he could do once I picked it up and could only get it to set at 5 degrees as it started to rough ! that raised a bit of a concern ,anyway I left drove home ,it was not any better I borrowed a timing gun and had trouble undoing the green plastic bung but when I got it off it had lots of what looked like white chalk round the threads ,this had not been off for a while .the timing was as follows with the crank shaft and cam lined up and no1 spark at top dc and the rotor at no1 ,the mark on the gearbox was in between the punch mark and the large diamond .I put tip ex on the diamond bit and done plugged the vacuum pipe and moved it a touch to the diamond re tightened the dizzy but I replaced the rotor arm as it felt loose on the spindle bit it sits on .Went for a drive 10 times better revs tick over about 900to 1,000 ,not sure if the mixture needs a slight adjustment , is that set around 1.8 -2.0 and im using now super unleaded .Ihave not spoke to this fella yet ,but he has let himself down badly just a simple job but just put it on a lap top and gave me a print out ,thanks mark and rubjonny for your help really grateful … pete

Surly he should of had to remove the green plug to set the timing so it's very strange you had so much trouble removing it? Makes me wonder if he knew what he was doing…. May be best not to use that garage again.
when driving keep an ear out of any pinking when the engine is under load eg 5th gear and low revs driving up a hill etc. If you do get any pinking retart the timing a little.
keep us updated and glad you have sorted it.

he may have had a light with advance dial and was using the crank pulley? if not god knows. unless he had the pro VW tool that fits the timign bung on the gearbox. but then again if he was doign either of those things it wouldnt have needed adjusting by yourself…

however, if when everythign was at tdc the punch mark wasnt liend up your belt could be out, BUT you'll find that the flywheel moves loads for only a tiny movement on the crank bolt.

so if you double check the base belt timing set the engien to tdc, then see what the flywheel is at. if slightly off move the crank till the punch mark is lined up, then check the cam see if its out or not. It'll probably be fine though, as i say its amazing how much the flywheel moves when you move the crank pulley a tiny smidgeon

It is really easy for the cam belt to be one tooth out on the cam shaft and the car will drive OK just a little down on power. I know this because I've done it before, I changed the cam belt and thought it was all set right put the car back together and drove around for about a month thinking somethings not right so played with timing, new plugs  etc then realized the cam was a tooth out, popped the belt off and the got it right and its was like driving a different car!
So worth double checking the timing marks for the cam shaft.
I think it should line up with the top of the head not the top of the rocker cover as that's what I did with my cam belt change, or it could of been the other way around hopefully rubjonny will let us know.

if you have to adjust spin the engine round 360 degrees and recheck to be sure. taking the plugs out helps when turning over by hand as you dont have to fight compression then

hi , i was thinking weather this fella had used a special tool and done it from the crankshaft pulley end ,regards the green bung i got a scket made up out of nylon with a t bar to unscrew it out .I dont think im a tooth out on the belt and i had lined up the crankshaft pully with the dent mark on it with the arrow on the plastic cover and the camshaft i did the same as the picture anddone it to the top of the cylinder head but mine aint a punch mark its just a type of line that stands out and the roter armwas pointing to around 2 'clock , i did take me a few goes to line the diamond mark up with arrow as i kept moving the dizzy to much didnt realize you hardly had to touch it and it will move .Im going to take it out and put underload like a big hill and see if it pinks if it does then i have to retard it a touch …