91 passat hardly starts

[jackbrody]

Ok. I have two parts cars now and just purchased my thrid 91 passat. Sadly this one is not a GL, yet. For safety had to exchange both drive axles, wiper, ball joint, change all belts on my way to change the timing belt which I now understand to be crucial as the last two engines both craped out cause of timing belt breaking and pistons bending the valves.
The owner of this one just didn't want to spend any more on it dcause she was putting it in. Of course it has the usual problem that i have yet to really fix which is the water in the cabin issue which of course over time make the drapery fall off the roof. More importantly it comes in, or at least that is where a can confirm visual dripping from, up above the electrical componants. Make for things to get a little wonkey. In fact my last operating passat '91, started to smoke real fast as the abs wire and relay got fried. So it could be very dangerous. I wonder why they haven't come out with a service report. My dealership denies it to be a common problem. The forums say otherwise. If anyone can tell me how to fix the problem on a 91 passat I would appreciate it.

My present situation is a failing to start or rather stay started. It happened today. Rainy day the first one in the car. Driving i begin to loose power here and there. Praying to make it back to the farm before... stalls. wouldn't maintain a start since. searching around i'm begining to think maybe vacuum leak. I thought maybe wet relays, but found no eveidence of this. let me know what you think.

thanks

jack

[tea drinker]

Hi Jack, what type of motor is in this car?
Has it been serviced lately at all? It might just need a good service and tidy up, might have got a dose of bad juice, could have blocked things up.
Hard to say without more info..

All the best,
Martin

[jackbrody]

Well Mr. Teadrinker, It is like this.
It is a 91 Passat with a 2 litre engine 4 cylinder. True I consider that it may just need a little tune up. So I have an appointment with the dealer to check the diagnostics, set it up to speck and clear the memory for next time. However, the lady that i bought the car from seemed to be going through it and did some things already. For instance I see a new grounding harness. I have two days before I bring to the dealership. The car starts after like 6 tries on a cold start. I recently replaced the cold start valve, some older vacuum hoses, the dip stick was broken and i noticed it was also broken on one of the parts cars ( thankfull I have two), I replaced the dip stick holder thing that was broke, I replaced the Whole gas/air mixture thing with some sensors on it, I replaced the gas filter and gas pump ( now here is something of interest; When I took off the componant of the parts car the gas would just come dripping out, enough to fill two buckets of good size. With more gas in the tank, I expected the same if not more gas to come out of the driving car., But no nothing came dripping out. I'm now in the process of replacing the tank as a whole unit, maybe something is clogged inside and is giving me intermittant gas. I stopped for lunch and will do and check it out within the next few hours.). My plan is to replace and keep , for the dealership, all mentioned sensors that may have something to do with it. What do you think it could be ? Is there anymore information I could provide?
The oxygen sensor is new. The fella at the co-op suggested I put some deicer in the tank.

Thank you again for your time and interest

Jack