my old car (now driven by the missus) is a '91 VW scirocco GT2. Its non injection 1.8. Its started misbaving for the first time since I got it 9 years ago (most likely a cry for attention since I got my new zed :) ). Anyway, I going to have a look at it today but I'm a bit clueless. Thought some of you mechanicaly minded types might be able to give me some pointers.

 

The symptoms seem to be that its starts fine and runs OK until its warmed up and then at speed (~70) the engine just seems to stutter and die. Its intermittent and if the car is left for a bit will normally restart and run OK for a bit.

 

Any suggestions where I should start looking?

 

Cheers

 

David

A VW forum!!!??? :D ;) :D

Could be a fueling problem - check fuel pump, filter, regulators, etc.

 

I know nothing about VWs so am just chucking out what sounds logical.

 

HTH

 

Regards,

Is the car modified in any way?

 

There is a problem with some induction kits where it creates a vacume around the MAS so the MAS thinks no air is getting into the engine.

 

This is presuming that the car has a MAS and has an induction filter.

 

I had an Astra which did the same but it didnt die. It just almost hit a power wall when it reaches 50pmh. I found that an air hose has collapsed blocking air to the engine. Replaced the hose and it was fine.

 

Probably none of these but worth a try.

 

Stuart

Does it have the dizzy cap and rotor arm attached to the side of the engine? Like alot of Vauxhalls have.

 

I had a 2.0 Astra GTE a while back that used to run fine when cold but not so well warm, also if you took it a short run then switched off it was a bugger to get started.

 

Anyway, turned out the cause of this was a little rubber seal that goes betwwen the back of the rotor arm and the rocker cover gasket, thus oil was getting in the dizzy, fine when it was cold but once the thing got warmed up the oil either turned into some sort of vapour, or got spread around by the rotor arm causing the contact to get weakend.

 

If your dizzy is mounted to the rocker its worth checking.

 

Might help, might not.

 

All the best.

My brother used to have a similar car to yours, apparantly the carburettors are prone to playing up after a while and most scirocco types seem to replace this with a weber, which, apparantly is far superior (and cheaper than the original vw job)

 

Paul N

cheers folks.

 

I took it out for a spin myself (just to check she wasn't doing somethging daft or making it up) and sure enough, it ran great for about 45 minutes at all speeds. I had forgotten what life was like before power steering! Wheel balance was well out! thought it was going to shake my teeth out at 80!! Then cruising back at 70 the engine just died without any warning at all. No real stuttering to speak of, just stopped. I'm thinking something electrical. Was wondering if the imobiliser could be playing up or something shorting?

 

Car is totaly stock. I've heard the same about the carbs and used to quite fancy sticking a weber on it. Hope its not that now though coz what little spare cash I've got is destined to get spent on my zed!

 

think I will concentrate on the coil, distributor, leads, plugs etc. Make sure all that's OK.

 

Anyway, thanks for you suggestions, plenty stuff to look at tomorrow!

 

After I had been out in the VW, my Zed refused to start :rolleyes: seems to be running fine now, obviously just trying to teach me a lesson!

Actually this happend to my sisters metro. I would just stall with no warning at all and for no reason and then it would be a lottery whether it started up straight away again or not. I will find out what the problem was when I go home tonight

 

 

Stuart

could be a dodgy earth, happened in a freinds metro.......

it could be a number of things, fuelling did spring to mind to start with, could even be down to crap floating around in the fuel tank and blocking the fuel pump off. if it has a rotor arm in a dizzy cap then it could be that. I've seen it where some rotor arms are actally kinda spring loaded and this is the rev limiter, as the rotor arm spins around at v.high revs, the conductive part of the rotor arm comes appart and hence the engine cuts out making a clever but probably not too accurate rev limiter. If this is a bit dicky then this could be your prob.

 

if it doesnt appear to be speed or rev related then maybe electrical. happy hunting

When the car stalls for no reason, do the dash lights come on, as if they do there is still power getting to the car and wont be an earthing problem

My first proper car was a scirocco 1.6 GT and after many years of trouble free motoring it developed the same problem. I can't be 100% on this but I believe it was something to do with the breathers and stuff coming off the carb. Once sorted she was back to 200% reliability again........Probably the best car I've ever owned.....:cry:

I had a VW Polo with a similar problem - it ws intermittent so never found out what caused it -part exed it to a garage while it was working ;) Maybe a common VW fault ?

SRRAE, yes the lights do come on. So not earthing then...