Club 80-90 Forums

I bought my van last December, a Westie T3 multivan. 2.1 inj automatic. I liked the van with a lift up medium top and had had a 2.1 inj as my first van.

I bought it a bit swiftly tbh. On the test drive it started coughing up a hill and the guy said it was low on petrol, fortunately we were near a petrol station so he put some in and all went well. Though later I realised it was mainly downhill!

Anyway I bought the van, drove nicely for next 10 mins or so until I went up a hill, it now got slower and slower tho didn’t cut out. Occasionally it would surge a bit, then slow down again.

I’ve been to two mechanics who have not been able to solve the problem and don’t seem to want to follow any kind of diagnostic order.

The fuel pump, distributor and leads have been replaced. I have one injector that is intermittent. I bought a recon one as replacement but that didn’t seem to want to work.

The last time I drove the van it was for about 10 mins mainly on the flat. I went up a v slight incline to a T junction and then it just kept cutting out every time I put it into drive and tried to set off. Eventually I revved it to death and chucked it in reverse to get away from blocking the junction. I parked up and it still kept dieing. Eventually I had somewhere to go so left it parked overnight. The next morning I was able to start the van and get it home tho it was still losing power and doing surges.


It’s an MV engine that was reconned a few years ago.

I’m based in Sheffield. Sadly the local garage that worked in old vw’s has switched to only doing newer ones, or existing old vans.

Any ideas appreciated as it’s been sat without being able to be used for months

I may be being a bit over simplistic, but could it be something like crud and grit in the tank clogging up the pick-up / feed pipes.

Could do with seeing if the fuel filter is clogged or collapsed. (You did not list this in your new parts).

It sounds like a fuel starvation issue.

Also, you say one injector is intermittent.
Remember you are running very old wiring, so it is worth checking and cleaning all the connector pins of the loom.

Download the various guides and technical data from SyncroSport and work through it in a logical and methodical way. Sort the injector issue. A multimeter, a notebook and common sense will get you sorted, MV is lovely version, only 5 inputs,, plus air fuel spark and it goes

Thanks for your replies

I made an error Robsey, I meant to type fuel filter but put pump instead!

Aidan I will try that but I’m no mechanic, tho to be fair the guys who have looked at it don’t appear to have been methodical at all.

I’m hoping a friend who is very good with these but lives the other end of the country will have some free time to have a look soon.

I am sure that there are plenty of friendly members within striking distance of you / Sheffield that may be able to help.