http://ajmerphull.com/cars/vw/vw.htmlCommon problem Fixes
Intermittent Cut-out
This problem occurs at any speed from accelerating from stand-still to travelling at 70mph on the motorway.
The usual culprit is the ignition switch or the fuel relay?. I suggest you check your fuel relay with another owner or friend, before purchasing a new one, if that is the cause. If the ignition switch is the problem and you are not comfortable doing the work yourself, i suggest you call Vince at Stealth Racing.
Another common problem is the coil and the crank speed sensor?. The crank speed sensor monitors the TDC of the crank and signals the ECU. The coil, obviously provides the power to the spark plugs via the distributor. When one or both of these begin to fail the car will cut out for a split second while driving, as if there is a sudden loss of power. I would suggest checking the coil? first, since this is cheaper, but this fails then it will more likely be the crank speed sensor ?.
I was advised by a Volkswagen mechanic that on my engine type "AGG" the engine speed sensor is a common thing to go. If it fails the rev counter doesn't rise at crank. If it's ok it rises to about 300 after cranking for about 5 seconds. I replaced this because mine didn't rise. But the car still cut out. I took it back to the garage and they keep it for a few days. They ECU wasn't getting a signal which still indicated that the engine speed sensor was faulty, so they replaced it again. Still cut out. They replaced a power relay which supplys the ECU with power. Since then about 2 weeks the car has been fine.
Gerry Darroch
Cut-out under braking
Clean the breather pipes and the throttle body inlet and butterfly. Amazingly, the small amounts of oily deposits in and around this area causes the erratic idle and cut-out under braking. Also check the breather pipes for damage and/or splits.
By no means are these the ultimate solutions to these problems, but feedback from many VW owners have shown positive results.
History
The heart of the Golf GTI is its engine. The Golf's engine began life in the Audi workshop. Back in the 1970's Audi developed a new engine for their Audi 80's. This engine (EA827) had overhead camshaft, driven by a toothed belt. The camshaft lobes acted directly on bucket tappets on the valves, thus eliminating push rods, rockers and chains. Though this was not unique for 1972, unknown to VW it was a fairly significant step for Audi and would be for their new Golf.
As many of you know, the camshaft drives auxiliary shaft which provides gear drive for the distributor and oil pump. Another Vee grooved belt drives the water pump and alternator. Another new feature for the 1970's was the use of electric fans, which removed the necessity for crucial positioning of the radiator to allow a belt drive alignment. Oil was cooled by a finned alloy sump and since it is always cooling the oil, it took longer to warm up. Bosch K-Jetronic Fuel Injection was featured on all Audi 80's sold in the USA from 1975 to improve exhaust emissions and not for performance increase.
Californian Audi's were fitted with catalysts. European Audi's featured this fuel injection later in 1975, which was known as the Audi 80 GTE (some were badged as GTi). Audi developed their engine using materials for the valve and seat that are compatible with the use of low lead fuels. These engines can withstand huge power modifications due to its strong cast iron block and 5 bearing counter weighted forged steel crankshaft.
In 1972, Audi developed a 1471cc (76.5mm bore x 80mm stroke) fitted with a twin choke carb (32/35 TDID) with a 9.8:1 compression ratio, which produced 85bhp. Inlet valve sizes were 34mm and exhaust valve size of 31mm, with 230 degree camshaft. They used this engine in their Audi 80 GL (which was later fitted to the Scirocco TS).
Later in 1973, this engine was increased to 1588cc (79.5mm bore x 80mm stroke) fitted with the larger twin choke carb (Solex 35/40 DIDTA), big bore exhaust with the same 9.8:1 compression ratio. The camshaft was retarded by 3 degree to give more top end. This engine produced 100bhp@6000rpm and 98lb ft@4000rpm. Just for comparison, the 1996 1.6 A4 engine (as used in the Audi A4) produces 101bhp@5300rpm and 103lb ft@3800rpm.
In 1975 the 1588cc engine was modified by increasing the inlet valve size to 38mm and reducing the compression ratio to 9.5:1, this increased power to 110bhp and 103lb ft@5000rpm. This engine was also fitted with a Bosch K-Jetronic Fuel Injection system. K-Jetronic Fuel Injection was in fact a mechanical system. The K? and the system operated on continuous fuel flow to the injectors. In the USA it is known as CIS?. The engine code for this was denoted by the letters YS.
