16 valve not well

[crimp]

I was driving home last night from Bristol to London when going down Piccadilly the car starts to jerk violently for about a 100 meters, then stalls and will not run. About 15 minutes later it would run again, but I did not want to risk driving home, so got a tow.I think it might be the fuel pump. Anyone got any ideas before I change the pumps?     

[Blue MK2]

Does the fuel pump 'whine' for about 3 seconds with the ignition on?

This happend to me last week. Mine was a loose wire that should have been bolted to the rocker cover screws. Not sure with 16v's though.

Relay/fuses?

[crimp]

Year there is a whine for about 3 seconds when I turn on the ignition, but its been like that since I got the car a year and a half ago, and its all way driven allright.

[fastphil]

This happened to  me last year in  my 8v.If i started the engine up and let it tick over it was fine,as soon as i start ed to drive it the car would jerk violently.Turned out to be the lift pump inside the petrol tank,it had packed in and the main high pressure pump was trying its best to deliver the fuel but couldn't cope with the demand hence the jerking and stalling
Hope this is helpful

[tinman]

could be coil braking down and over heating.

[keefusg60]

Definitely check the fuel pump relay too, as is cheap and easy. It went on My mk1 a couple of months ago, and only cost about ?15 to fix.

[Gambit]

lift pump is cheap and easy to change

sayin that i had a similar problem to you about a year ago. turned out to be the hall sender in the dizzy. the little wires become hard and brittle within the dizzy.

you can get a new hall sender off Stuart@ECP for about ?10. then you just take the dizzy out and dismantle it and replace

in the end i just replaced the whole dizzy, and my problem was cured

[crimp]

Thanks for all replies. Ghanged lift pump and had to re set tick over now car is realy reponsive and feels faster.So hopefully thats sorted it. Does any one know when you set the  tick over up, where the throttle idle screw, and the one in the air flow sensor should be set before you start to ajust them, or does it not matter.

[Gambit]

this will tell you how to set it up
http://www.btinternet.com/~gvk_motorsport/16valvestall.html