mk1 fuel pump

[joesgti]

right,

my friends mum has given us her old mk1 cabriolet for free, its been stood for 2 years and the interior has mold growing on it. battery has been disconected the whole time and never started. connected the battery back up and it started first time on the first turn!!!

so itl need the usual oil and filter change, all belts changing, but there is a funny noise coming from the rear drivers arch, sounds like a sucking noise, i think its the fuel pump. any way i just got a quote from vw and they are wanting 242 for the pump and fuel lines and an extra 330 for fitting!!!! WTF.

what should we do? also it cuts out whilst driving but i think this is the pump not working correctly.

PLEASE HELP as i dont want this car to go to the scrappy 

[Komenda]

Check the fuel filler neck. Its common for them to rust and the crap gets sucked through causing it to cut out.

[Dinky]

^agree with the above...
does your pump actually prime ok just before you turn it over?
I would personally service it before fault finding.. could even be dragging through cr@p from the bottom of the petrol tank - rust, dirt, dead rat? 
so oil/air/fuel filters, sparks, dizzy, rotor and go from there..
oh and obv check the battery is ok whilst your under the bonnet...

Dinx

[gibby]

Look in the fuse box and take out the fuel relay (I think it's the large one, top left, probably on the second row) and sandpaper the connections as they might be full of gunk too.

As above really, get it serviced first before spending all that on it. Why go to VW anyway, you can probably find the parts you need cheaper at GSF or ECP.

This is what I'd do -

1) Check there's petrol in it !
2) Check fuel relay and sandpaper the connections
3) Check filler pipe and hope it's ok (these are about £96 + VAT and that's not from VW )
4) Get a full service done, oil/air & fuel filters, dizzy cap and rotor arm, change oil and spark plugs.
5) See what happens after that.

The noise behind the driver rear wheel is the fuel pump priming but it should go off after a couple of seconds, if it does that then it's probably working ok.

[russ-vdub]

i'd think about it this way, once its all sorted and cleaned, the couple of hundreds you may need to spend will be re-embursed as soon as you sell it especially as you got it free

[joesgti]

cheers all, im going away for 2 weeks now but everything is getting done whilst im away