Club 80-90 Forums

Hi,

Consulting those in the know about a problem with my 1990 1.9 DG Water-cooled, I will describe in as best detail as possible in the hope of an answer that can sort this out......

A few months ago after a moderate run of about 35 miles I parked up in a town for about 15 mins, came back, engine fired, pulled away, and cut out. I attempted to restart and it would not fire. Fortunately I was on an incline I managed to get it to fire with a lot of spinning, but was running with no power and cut out as soon as I dipped the clutch.

I gave it a few mins and it fired when I tried again, ran perfectly (as usual), so off I went, thinking I hope that's a one off.

I travelled from Newcastle to the lakes a week ago, no problems whatsoever. Oil consumption is fine, well maintained and pulls like a train.

Today I travelled from Newcastle to Yorkshire, again perfect running. Coming home after about an hour on the motorway I stopped at a services. Came out after about 30 mins, started, and after seconds cut out when I went to change gear. It fired momentarily, however ran really rough, I couldn't get any power, it then cut out and would not start.

I managed to pull over to a safe spot and roll to a halt, (still in the services thank goodness), however this time it would not fire at all. Spun it over and over using various accelerator positions, no luck. After about an hour I had to admit defeat as this was obviously now worse and had to ring the AA.

AA chap agreed it's well maintained and went over spark /fuel supply etc, no faults, although he commented the spark could be weak, bit could be wrong.

He wanted to use test gear on an ignition lead, however it wouldn't fit as the spark plugs have no screw on on top terminals, just the thread. He had another go using a work around, and it fired, once running it was perfect.

Obviously he was chuffed he got it running and said he suspected the spark plug to lead connection(s), but wasn't fully convinced as it could be a coincidence as it had cooled down. I drove it back home, over an hour of motorway driving, all perfect.

I had one stop off before home so switched it off, again for about 30 mins. Came back to it, fired after a 5 second spin, drove it for about 30 seconds, then miss-fire and cut out.

Fortunately I was on a very long descending hill and basically stuck it in 3rd and hoped for the best. Thank goodness this worked, it kicked into life after a few seconds and once again, ran perfectly.

Replies from those with experience of this would be much appreciated

Thanks in advance.

Sounds like fuel pump for sure. You have spark just no gogo juice. Put a electric one on and watch her go. The mechanical ones start to get lazy with hit and miss start ups. Been there too.


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Cheers Dan, it's actually had a new fuel pump within the last twelve months, a JK one, although obviously you could still be right.

The AA guy tried the fuel pump and said it was delivering fuel, but of course by the time the AA arrived it have cooled off, although it still wouldn't start.

We left it for about an hour before ringing for assistance because I was convinced it would start up when cool / cold. This time was much worse.

Sequence of specifics with the AA was....

Attempt to start, just cranked over.
Fitted battery booster pack as we had taken a bit out of the battery trying to bump and start it prior to giving up, it cranked over faster (obviously). No start.
Checked spark, was sparking although he struggled with the AA spark tester owing to the plugs having no caps.
Checked fuel supply, had fuel
Went back to plugs using a 'work around' to get tester to connect to a plug, van started.



Paul

For what it cost it would be my first thing to change. If not that then you have a spare. What fuel pump do you have?


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Hi Dan, 'spare' pump is the original factory fit pump, new one is a JK one fitted about 6 / 8 months ago.

Standard mechanical pump bolted to engine, i'm sure it does not have a push rod, easy spot on the JK or other supplier website standard 1990 1.9 DG petrol engine pump.

I spoke to a former colleague today who was a VW CV mechanic, he reckons another problem can be the Hall Sender, so I will swap the pump and get a Hall unit.

Paul

The mechanical pump has a pushrod. It's in the pedestal that the pump sits on. As likely to be as worn as the pump, so worth replacing at the same time as the pump. It has a hardened bullet point at the other end and this wears flat so the rod doesn't push so far into the mechanical pump.
Make sure it runs free in the plastic pedestal or it can bind when it gets hot.

Sorry to resurrect this post however I need some good guidance with the following.

After 1.9 DG failed to hot start at a services a few months ago, I fitted a new distributor and thought it was fine. I used it on a few trips to Northumberland from where i live in Newcastle so that's about a 40 mile trip one way, camper started fine for return journey each time.

Today, I travelled to West Yorkshire, so a longer run of about 80 miles (one way).

On arrival, I needed to re-start to manoeuvre the camper and it struggled to fire and cut out after each start up. After a few goes it would not start at all. As per my original message which started this post, I left it to cool off and after about three hours, with literally one final last gasp try before calling recovery, it fired.

I have just arrived back home and it ran perfectly all the way, thank goodness I didn't need to stop for petrol otherwise that would have probably been another 3 Hrs of cool down time. What a total nightmare!

So, it appears something is happening to the vehicle but only after lengthy journeys, previous posts said potential air lock in the fuel system? Whatever it is, I need to get this sorted.

Advice on what I need to do will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Quick update on this one, I have removed the pushrod, which I reckon is the original, so about 130,000 under its belt.

Will start with a new one and take it from there, if the problem continues (although judging by the feedback hopefully this fixes it), I will have to try an electric pump.

Cheers