Mk3 golf help

Hi All,
I have a 1997 MK3 golf 1.4, in the last few months it has developed a problem. It starts fine and drives fine, but if I go for a short drive (to shops) it will not start straight away, I will have to keep trying to start it for ages and then eventually it will splutter to life and take about 30 seconds before it runs smoothly, there is a very rich smell of petrol from the fumes. also for the first 5 minutes of driving the revs are very irregular sometimes going up to 2000rpm, after 5 mins or so the revs will settle at just under 1000rpm and the car will run fine.I have serviced it recently and changed the fuel filter. I have had this car 3 years with no issues at all, first time i had this problem was a day after I had let the fuel run very low, thats the reason I changed the fuel filter.
At the moment I cant afford to take it to a garage so if anyone has an idea what the problem might be I would appreciate it greatly.:1zhelp:

Thanks
Ken

Hi Ken,

Your problem sounds a bit like mine, if when mine's playing up I press the throttle pedal down a bit when trying to start it, which you shouldn't really do (except when you're desperate) as it wets the plugs.

And apart from looking for vacuum leaks, a faulty EVAP valve and cleaning a blocked oil breather system I'm still wondering whether I've got low fuel pressure or a dodgy ECU relay, and like yours my car drives fine otherwise.

Annoying isn't it, and I haven't pinned it down yet.

Hi, I found the problem :-)
It was the coolant temp sender switch. I got a diagnostic done and this was flagged.
I changed it myself yesterday and its running sweet as a nut.
I was told this is a common problem.

The sender on the thermostat housing held in with a clip, originally metal now plastic?

So yours was running too rich and taking a long time to warm up, glad to hear you got it sorted,

Common is not the word I would use but I can't think of a better one that implies "this happens all the time on all cars".

The sender housing is held in by a plastic clip, took me a minute to figure out what was holding it in.
The car now runs at a steady 900rpm approx.
i'm going to give it a full service and clean out the inlet and injectors (if I am able to) then she should be like new lol