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View Full Version : 1995 1.4 Golf Starts & Stops



Nip
10-04-2006, 09:59 PM
I have a 1995 1.4 Golf which has 65k miles and has been laid up for 6 months. I put a new battery in it & started first time & drove a couple of miles. The car was dirty & I power washed it, including in around the engine compartment. I thought I'd been fairly careful with the washer direction but I think have knocked something out. The car will start & rev (if pedal pumped), for about 2-3 seconds and then dies. It seems to be going on the initial boost of petrol when starting the car but after that nothing. I have blew out all the electrical connections with compressed air but to no avail. Can anyone point me in the right direction of where the fault may be, or advise if the water jet could have scrapped the throttle unit?
Please advise if you know where I should be looking.

14/04/2006 OK, a quick update. I'm still no further on with my wee car, it will just start, give a couple of revs and then stop. It will start again immediately and the same process begins. In fact, you could do that all day if you had a battery and starter motor that would do it.
I've checked the throttle unit, stripped all the components and tested where possible, and the fault persists. Other things I have tried are disconnect the battery, spark the battery posts, temp sensor and brain reset but nothing. My nearest VAG dealer is 20 miles away and I'm stumped with this one.
Please help.

16/04/2006 I sought devine inspiration but it was not forthcoming. I've changed the plugs as they were black when I pulled them out, and a nice set of rubberised plug leads have also been installed. Turned the car over again and it started, I was able to rev it twice, and then it instantly dies. Turn the key immediately and the whole process follows on exactly the same. I think it's only getting a shot of fuel squirted in at the start from cold and that is what it gets the couple of revs from.
I'm at my wits end with this, does anyone have any inclination what part of this set up I'm overlooking? i'ts a 1.4 1995 petrol golf with fuel injection system.

19/04/2006 I've managed to help finish the last easter egg but I still haven't 'cracked' this problem!
I can start the car & rev it a couple of times and then it dies. However, I found out today that if when the engine starts to die, I turn the ignition key off by one position and then back on again an it runs for a further few seconds, and you can repeat this as often as you like. My thoughts now point to the ignition side rather than fuel. Does anyone now if the 1995 1.4 petrol golf SE has a crankshaft sensor or something similar that may be dirty and not sending a signal that the engine is turning. If there is one then please tell me where it is as I can't find it.
If anyone has any other ideas then please pass them on. The car is booked for mot soon and if I can't get it going I'll have to pack it off on a transporter to the vag garage 20 miles away.

Nip
23-04-2006, 08:57 AM
23/04/2006 Having admitted defeat the transporter has been ordered for tomorrow & the car booked into the VAG garage :mad: . I never thought that washing the car would result in being so expensive, but I guess it must be a tricky fault when I asked for :1zhelp: as no-one else had an idea where to look. In future I'll stick to washing the wheelbarrow, at least I can fix anything on it!

Nip
27-04-2006, 08:02 PM
Well I guess some of you may be interested to know what was wrong with my wee car.;) It was quite acedemic in the end. The fact that I washed the car actually had nothing to do with it and it was sheer coincidence that the fault started after I'd washed it.
Oh, and the car never made it to the VAG garage either, as the transporter lorry broke down before it even reached my house.
I had one more night tinkering at it and I took the distributor cap off again for another look. I noticed a bit of float in the rotor arm shaft so I duely removed the distributor from the car. I found small pieces of fibre washer inside the unit so I stripped the shaft out & made up two carbon fibre washers to suit. Built it all back together again, put on a new rotor arm & distributor cap, connected the battery terminals again and turned the key to start it. The car burst back into life without a cough.
:biglaugh: So I was blaming myself for being stupid to wash the engine bay, when really it was the fact that the car had been lying parked up for six months that was the issue & probably the washers had got bone dry didn't get enough engine lube when the car was started up again.
:beerchug: I hope my experience helps someone else in the future with a similar mind numbingly frustrating problem.

:D