I need help. car (1990 8v) broke down overseas. being f****d around. . .

[wankstain]

I was driving to south Europe in a 1990 8v GTI Golf.

Before leaving the UK the car began doing something strange: in top gear she would suddenly lose all power if I pushed her over 4100rpm and die. When this happened the rev counter swung left to right in a very unpredictable fashion.

If I took my foot off the accelerator then she would cut back in at just on 4000rpm. Sometimes it would backfire while this was happening.

My initial thoughts were that the car had some dirt in the injectors - as I had stupidly let it run out of petrol a few weeks earlier - but then I remembered that this had happened once before that a few weeks ago - also on a motorway at speed. Plus I had burnt a tank and a half with no issues since then.

I got the ferry, and sure enough I had the same problem in France, all the way through Belgian countryside. It must have happened 20 times - I edge just over 4000rpm and she dies.

Then just outside Luxembourg it began happening in lower gears and at lower rpm and I just managed to inch off the motorway before it got so she would only start and idle for a few seconds before dying.

Aclu came and took the car to a vw garage. Aclu man did examine the car and decided it was the Idle control valve. The vw garage have done absolutely nothing in two days, except offer to charge me 330E to get a new one - and then refuse to do so on the grounds that it might not be the problem

I have been stranded here since, and it is a very expensive country

I was at the garage today and I took off the ICV and used brake cleaner and wd40 to knock a load of filth from it but it made no difference when I started it afterward - except to cut out a shade quicker.

I did notice that, at the end opposite the block connector when I took off that pipe and was cleaning her out, there was a yellow plastic seal over a smaller hole in the centre that looked like it was cracked just a little.

Am I barking up the right tree? Cause it looks like if I want to leave this place I got to fix it myself.

The car is a Digi, 1990 8v. All oil, water and everything is as it should be.

I have been as specific as I can, I think.

Pretty please, with sugar and all that crap on top. Help














I cannot paste in text to this forum?? ******, or maybe its this stupid pc. Here is a link to the original thread: http://vwgolfmk2.co.uk/modules.php?n...ewtopic&t=8125

[Smutts]

The rev counter going spastic is a big clue. The rev counter will count the low voltage pulses sent to the coil by the electronic ignition. So that is where to look. Hall sender, crappy wiring, dying capacitors, fault in the low voltage windings of the coil. Happy hunting.