Stalling, spluttering, coughing and hard to start when warm

[liljay711]

Hi

I have an 86 golf cabriolet gti 1.8 DX engine code. Its done 165000 miles and doesn't burn oil but i can't seem to drive the car for more than 5 miles without it breaking down.

What happens first i suppose is theres a droning noise which kinda vibrates through the car whether ya stopped or in motion. If i come to a stop tho its more than likely to stall and unless attempted to start car straight away again, its virtually impossible to get started again until the car cools down i guess and even then it doesn't fire on all cylinders and coughs and jerks about. The car has always had a rare cough ever since i brought it last Nov and could never cure that problem. Now its worse with new problems with it...

I've done a service and changed plugs, filter, leads, rotor and cap. Even changed fuel pump relay and cold start valve as the noise is coming from behind the dash more to the drivers side but i can't pin point it at all because the engine doesn't stay alive long enough to get under the bonnet to check things out and it only does it when your driving. It never does it just idling on the drive. The cold start isn't brilliant either but i just come to expect this with old cars.

Does anyone know what i can do?

Thanks, Jay

[BigboyMK1]

Hi mate, I know this sounds a bit odd but have you tried swapping the dizzy over? mine started doing the same sort of things and after disconnecting the immobiliser I narrowed it down to the dizzy, the flexible wires inside that move with the advance weights had broken slightly causing it to cut out at odd times and be a pain to restart when warm, once cold it seemed fine!