GolfGTIforum.co.uk
General => The garage => Topic started by: margin-walker on 22 January 2004, 12:40
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Hi everyone,
I'll try and be brief for you! The lowdown - my car seems to idle ok (@ 900rpm) and is fine when driving along. No loss of power, no flat spots on acceleration. However, when I slow down into 2nd gear, for traffic lights and bends for example, the revs will drop to 400 rpm or below and the car sometimes can't hold it and it stalls. I have no problems re-starting the car though. It does this in dry and wet weather, when the engine's hot and cold. The car had a full service on Saturday but this hasn't fixed things.
Any ideas as to what it could be before I fork out ?s I haven't got taking it to the stealership? All replies will be much appreciated.
My car is a '96 2.0 8v GTI.
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could be the idle stabisation valve a bit gummed up.
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I've got exactly the same problem on my '97 P 8v. The post is in the Mk3 section under stalling....I think. Replies to the post suggest cleaning out throttle bodies, temp sensor or someone mentioned a vacuum leak somewhere. Let me know if you get it sorted. Going to clean out my throttle bodies this weekend to see if that makes a difference.
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The title is '8v GTI stalling' if you cant find it! ;D
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The title is '8v GTI stalling' if you cant find it! ;D
Found it! I phoned the local VW Stealership to see how much they charge to run engine diagnostic checks and they charge an hour's labour for it = ?72. Then I phoned some other guy who's not even really local and he's coming to my house on Saturday to run diagnostic checks and only charges ?35!!
I've been reading a lot and it could be any number of things - throttle body, MAF sensor, vacuum leak, distribution cap, alien force field . . . I'd rather fork out ?35 to get the error codes read than send it to a garage and have them spend 3 hours just trying to figure out what it is. My last 3 experiences with garages have been mind-altering! I never trust mechanics to give me a straight answer and fix only what is necessary. >:( I think that's a real shame.
I'll let you know what he finds in the diagnostic checks. Meanwhile, if anybody else has had this problem and fixed it, or has suggestions then please post them. It seems this is a common problem and it would be nice if we could narrow down the possible causes!
Thanks. ;D
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Tenner says its the throttle body is dirty if you have never had it cleaned before.
You should get it done every 50k. Should only cost about 40 quid anywhere or you can do it yourself and escape shopping with the bird for about an hour on a saturday afternoon!
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or u can blast a tin of ecoteck de-coker thru it for ?27, cleans the throttle body and de-cokes the rest into the bargain ;)
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Tenner says its the throttle body is dirty if you have never had it cleaned before.
You should get it done every 50k. Should only cost about 40 quid anywhere or you can do it yourself and escape shopping with the bird for about an hour on a saturday afternoon!
You couldnt give a quick description or point me in the right direction of method to clean out the throttle bodies....what to look out for, etc etc?
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or.....
mix abit of diesel fuel with your petrol and it does the same job.
about ?3 worth of diesel cleaned mine out
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or it could be your throttle stop switch, there is one under the throttle body that tells the ecu the throttle is closed, if this is not working the engine can die, also the revs seem to hunt some time. this happened to mine and costs about 40 quid for a new one
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Hi everyone - here's an update:
The guy came round to my house on Saturday in a big white van full of computer/tuning equipment. He started the car up, had a quick look at the engine and said it sounded very rough. Then he plugged the VAG COM into the dashboard but there were no error codes stored! I was convinced there would be error codes!
So he went back under the bonnet and did the following:
1) cleaned the throttle body (took all of 5 mintes!)
2) cleaned the distributor
3) checked the voltage on all ignition and spark plug leads (all ok)
4) cleaned the spark plugs
5) checked the emission sensor was ok
6) had a good fumble around for loose connectors etc.
The guy was well helpful and it only cost ?35! I took the car round the block and it didn't drop any revs - thank god. It sounded so much better when it was just ticking over as well.
So I decided to reset the ECU on Saturday night whilst it was running okay, and I bought some fuel injector cleaner from Halfords and poured that into a full tank of fuel. Yesterday I blasted the car to see my parents in Wirral - a good 35 minute thrash to start cleaning the injector nozzles.
Yesterday the car dropped revs slightly (from 900 to 750) about 4 times when changing into 2nd gear, but apart from that it's running great.
I hesitate to say the problem's fixed - will give it a week or so and see how it behaves.
I think cleaning the throttle body is a damn good idea - I replaced the original with a used one 12 months ago but haven't cleaned it since fitting it. Having watched the tuning guru do it on Saturday it looks dead easy. I'm not sure what he was spraying into it though, any suggestions?
Veedubgti8v, I'm interested in your suggestion about the throttle stop switch - my car hunts for the revs sometimes when (attempting!) to idle. It's always had a rough idle. What symptoms did your car have before you fitted a new throttle stop switch?
Thanks for your replies everyone, hopefully your answers will help a few people to sort out their stalling/rough idle woes! ;D
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It would start ok but when i pull away and put the clutch in to change gear or stop the revs would drop to about 500rpm and the battery light would flicker, it only did it in 1st and 2nd cos the revs are lower i suppose. when the revs dropped they would 'flick' back up again to about 1250 rpm then drop to about 700 then settle on 850ish. didnt matter if the car was warm or cold it still did it, when it was cold tho it would sometimes drop so low it would stall. i fitted a new switch and it stopped immediately after i had readjusted the revs, it now only drops to about 800rpm then raises to 850rpm and stabilises straight away.
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to fit it you have to take the throttle body off (not hard) when i did this i checked the gasket (mine was ok) cos if it was leaking that could cause a problem, i also took out the idle screw and gave i a clean, both the screw and the hole it goes in. i then cleaned the throttle body out with carb cleaner. this was an intermittent fault but i havent had any probs since i replaced the switch 3 weeks ago!
hope this helps
ed