Three weeks of ownership then............

[Lap]

Driving down the M1 at 70mph and suddenly the engine cuts out. The speedo is reading 70mph and the rev counter is on zero!  :huh:  The engine has completely died yet no lights on the dash come up like they do when it stalls. After a few seconds it recovers but does it again later on. If it continues to do this then its really not very safe. Don't want to pull out to accelerate and end up stopping in the middle of the road! 

I know there are alot of posts on here about cutting out when stopping at junctions and the car started to do this yesterday for the first time (since I bought it). However, it was low on fuel so don't know if this is related. It still did it after I filled up though.
 
The car is a 1989 Golf GTi and i've done the dizzy cap and rotor and also had the cambelt changed.   

Any help is much appreciated. 

[Mew]

Sounds like what my rover used to do when driving in the rain for a while. A new coil sorted that out. Hopefully that might help?

[jv]

Had the same problem a few weeks back - tightened up alternator belt, new leads, plugs, diz cap and rotor appeared to fix it.

[Lap]

Cheers. I'll check the coil and the leads. It already has a new alternator belt.

However, is there any significance with the fact that no dash lights came on when it cut out? In fact, it was as if I had turned off the engine.  If the leads, rotor arm, dizzy etc were faulty and the engine stopped then wouldn't the battery warning light come on?

Perhaps I am way off here since I've never had one of these cars before. 

[FBF]

might be battery related.  check your earth leads.  or ignition related.  does sound like the battery disconnected for a few seconds to me.

[rubjonny]

check the wiring to the injector rail & the earth lead to the rocker cover, I had exactly this when both of these snapped on my GTI!  Managed to get it going again with a 13mm spanner, a penknife & some duck tape

[Lap]

I'll check the injector rail and earth leads first thing tomorrow. Erm, sorry to sound daft but apart from the rocker cover, whereabouts do other earth leads live?  :embarassed:

Will check the battery too.

[rubjonny]

depending on the year, there could be one or 2 wires to the rocker cover, and another on the plastic coolant flange on the right side of the block.  Thre should also be a chunky braided cable running from the coil bracket to the rocker cover.

[Mr Blue]

might be battery related.  check your earth leads.  or ignition related.  does sound like the battery disconnected for a few seconds to me.

ive disconnected the battery before and the engine kept running so not too sure about that

[Uruk Hai]

On most cars once its running if you take the battery off it will stay running via the alternator !