Hi all

We have had our 2001 1.6 Estate for a year now and not had any major problems with it (other than a failed water pump which made the cambelt slip a few notches ), but over the past few months it has become increasingly reluctant to run properly on startup. I was planning on having it looked at over Christmas when it went in for a service, but the water pump failing caused to to forget to mention it then, and I haven't really got the money to spend having it looked at properly as the car otherwise seems fine.

It fires fine, and the revs will rise to about 1500rpm and then fall right off, and the engine will cut out. Sometimes it manages to catch itself and blip the throttle to prevent the stall, and then repeats this, often hitting 2500rpm on blips, for about 10 seconds before settling down. Starting with lights, the interior fan etc on obviously makes this worse, too.

I have worked around the problem by starting with a tiny bit of throttle applied - this seems to work, and I will manually hold the revs at just under 2k rpm for a few seconds to keep it running. It also smells a lot of petrol while it is doing this, suggesting the mixture is way too rich?

The cold snap recently didn't make the problem any worse than normal, and it will do it when the engine is hot or cold - it NEVER goes away.

Any ideas what it might be?

Oh, and in addition the oil level sensor flashes on startup, which the handbook tells me is a failed sensor. I keep a strict eye on the oil level and it is fine. Could they be related?

Cheers

Jimmy

There are a whole list of things this could be. I'd suggest checking the VAGCom users' map for someone near you, who'll read off the fault codes for free, or at least beer money.

Ken's advice is correct, and should be the first step, but the instability of revs sounds like classic need of a throttle body alignment. That's a VAG-COM job too.

i have the same issue with my octy 1.6, cold starts are very bad... i just want to rip it off the engine bay and throw it to the river!!!!! , so far i´ve done a TBA and changed the temp sensor, cleaned the MAF but the still have the same problem.

Will try to take the TB out and go crazy with a can of carburettor cleaner and see what happens.

another thing ive noticed is that seconds after turning on the engine, a sound of like a vacum line or something comes and the engine rpms dive, the engine stalls and dies.

any idea of what is this sound coming from? or is it even normal?

I would look towards the throttle body - as I had odd problems with my last car which did this and they changed the throttle body. Luckily I got shot of that one whilst in warranty and have another 1.6 now.

Ah, another question, where can i find the PCV valve? months ago i found that my intake was full of oil and it was smoking like there was no tomorow. i removed the pipe that goes from near the oil filler cap and the intake, and at least it doesnt smoke as much and my intake doesnt get dirty of oil. i read that it is a faulty pcv but i cant find it.

i have the same issue with my octy 1.6, cold starts are very bad... i just want to rip it off the engine bay and throw it to the river!!!!! , so far i´ve done a TBA and changed the temp sensor, cleaned the MAF but the still have the same problem.

Will try to take the TB out and go crazy with a can of carburettor cleaner and see what happens.

another thing ive noticed is that seconds after turning on the engine, a sound of like a vacum line or something comes and the engine rpms dive, the engine stalls and dies.

any idea of what is this sound coming from? or is it even normal?

The description sounds like a secondary air pump (emissions control gear), but I'd usually associate those with the 1.8T.

Thanks for the info all, I will have a poke around at the weekend.

richardsfavorit - slightly OT but do you have any pics of your car with 17's on it? Ours is also a 1.6 Ambiente (in petrol green) and I always fancied a set of VRs alloys or similar, but wondered what they would look like.

The description sounds like a secondary air pump (emissions control gear), but I'd usually associate those with the 1.8T.

Where are the usual locations to find that pump?