Well, the Golf's health, always the topic of a thread or two on here, seems to have taken a major turn for the worse to me (although admittedly I dont know enough about cars to say this for sure).

At the beginning of the weekend, I took a mate home from work, as I was on the way to another mates near where he lived. When I got to said mates, the car just stalled for no apparent reason.

After that, it was not the same. For starters, a standard looking Ford Focus in front of me just pulled away and there was little I could do about it. The car is feeling pretty underpowered at this stage, to say the least.

Now, the idling is very rough, and it just keeps cutting out every time I stop. The engine belches out smoke from the exhaust, and fills the cabin with fumes - even now, several hours after my journey home, and the car's interior absolutely stinks of petrol. The car is very, very jerky at low revs, and I had to drive most of the way home in 2nd. The A1 was worse than usual so I had to stop several times, and stalling as a result. I could see people in other cars laughing their heads off.

Its times like this I *really* miss the Fabia.

To be honest, it has the "feel" of being a serious problem, but what? Gasket? Pumps? Injectors? I dont know, all I do know, is that I've got it booked into a VW specialist after my local backstreet garage said they wouldnt touch it.

If it costs more than a few hundred to repair, I'm afraid its likely to be the end of the road for the Golf. 5 months it lasted. Maybe I should stick to buying newer cars :thumbdwn: :thumbdwn:

oh dear

good luck

I think you need it!

Think You have a friday afternoon 5pm car there mate!! My Mk2's have always been as good as gold, infact the last one I had had over 180K on the clock and was in excellent shape!!!

If I were you I'd just bin the motor and fit a 2 litre! It'll run off all your existing harness and give your car some serious oomph! Dead easy to do to!

idle stablization valve maybe? sometimes goes causing eratic idling and stalling when pressing the clutch

smoke etc im not sure about

I thought it might be the ISV, but surely it would not violently shudder while on the move?

I'm not really angry about the car - I knew a 14 year old car would need repairs on a regular basis, but the nature of the problems just seem to get more worrying with each one IMO :(

have you had the injection system cleaned out? i had problems with mine but i got the valve changed and the fuel filter changed, plus got treatment to clean the injectors etc, worked well.

Maybe, we'll see what they say, but I got a bad feeling about it... but hopefully i am wrong.

So... in the event of the worst happening, what next?

Mazda MX5 is supposed to be one of the most reliable cars buuilt, and its a proper sports car, and RWD :rubchin:

hairdresser?????

like i said, whack in a 2 litre!!! only take you a day!!!

hairdresser?????

Inevitable comment... but if you can see past that, they are said to be one of the most sorted and fun little cars ever made.

is it a k-jet or a digi??

maybe fuel metering head if k-jet, or warm up regulator?

if you can get past the "skoda????" mentality, you should be able to get past the "mx5's are for hairdressers" train of thought.

i'm kinda thinking about getting an mx5 too, for the reasons mentioned above

is it a k-jet or a digi??

maybe fuel metering head if k-jet' date=' or warm up regulator?[/quote']

Its the 'dreaded' digifant...

Its the 'dreaded' digifant...

oh dear. in that case, i have a lovely set of 45's here if you want to throw that injection out the window

Hi Paul,

It's a long shot, but it might just work!

I had an Audi 80 Sport years ago with the same engine as you, (although I think I might have had the KJet injection system instead).

I had a problem that sounds similar to you, although it never manifested itself with petrol smells, so I strongly suspect it is not this, but for

Try replacing the coolant temp sensor

@Mark, thanks for your suggestion, but i do not think its that - the car has very recently had a new rotor arm (among other things)...

Inevitable comment... but if you can see past that, they are said to be one of the most sorted and fun little cars ever made.

Excellent fun, and if you're feeling really silly, you can get a turbo-charged one (around 240bhp :eek: ).

Chris

I once had a Mk 3 GTi 8v that did this, same symptoms. VW said it needed a new ECU and wanted to steal about a grand off me. It turned out to be the throttle body dying! I sprayed half a can of carb cleaner in there to see if it was just sticking. It did make a difference but the problem came back after a few days. In the end I had to buy a new throttle body and fit it. Problem solved immediately. Hope it's this as it's an easy fix but was damn hard to diagnose. VW were useless, the engine was not throwing out any error codes. I looked at the ISV, injectors, rotor arm (common fault), coolant temp sensor (good call whoever said that!) - all the usual suspects.

^ Thanks for that - i hope its nothing major... what you are saying does seem like a possibility, i noticed a couple of times rather than cut out the car would almost accelerate without me even being on the throttle for a brief time - that made for some interesting moments on the A1 western bypass when it happenned :eek:

Another hairdresser here then.I think MX5's are brilliant.

Get one for about

when is it booked in to the garage mate?

Thursday.... so we'll see what happens.

Try replacing the coolant temp sensor

i noticed a couple of times rather than cut out the car would almost accelerate without me even being on the throttle for a brief time

Your problem sounds similar to one I had with my Mk4 Bora which kept eating coolant temp sensors every 12 months. It would be fine when it was started from cold but as soon as it switched to warm running it was overfuelling which flooded the engine and caused it to stall in traffic and meant it would cruise at a steady 45mph with my feet off the pedals. There was also an occaision where it took off at 90mph down the motorway, which was erm.... "fun".

Maybe it could be that... BTW, I changed my coolant a week ago :rubchin:

I actually nearly went up the back of someone at one point because the car unexpectedly accelerated :eek: