Cutting out on cornering

[stuart.md]

Hi folks, new on here, looking for some advice and this seems like the best place to ask!

The car is a 1996 Golf SE (1.8 8V), completely standard, and it sometimes cuts out completely when cornering. This happens mostly when coming off roundabouts quite sharply, so left right left. When it stops, I have to pull over and give it say 30 seconds or so and it starts up perfectly and off i go, apart from this it runs perfectly. It is definetely related to the motion of the car, and I can almost make it happen on command, and performing the same maneuvers very slowly and gently causes no problems.

I dont think its down to fuel starvation, as there is no juddering at all, cuts out very cleanly, so im guessing electrical. When it dies, its just the engine, the rest of the electrics are fine, no loss of electricity. The rev counter continues working as well until I put the clutch in (dont know if this means there is spark or not, dont know where the signal for the tacho comes from on these cars, tbh dont know golfs at all really).

I spent a bit of time and checked/cleaned all the connections i could find under the bonnet, checked and cleaned the earth points as well, but its made no difference.

Any suggestions are much appreciated, im trying to avoid the roads at busy times just now as it could be kinda dangerous if it cut out suddenly on a busy bit of dual carriageway 

Cheers,
Stuart

[jafo]

Sounds like an electrical problem, but could be fuel related.

My friend had a similar problem on his car and i worked it out to be a wire had been pulled and as he went round right hand bends it pulled further taking the contact away which was needed.

Without looking its a tough one but id check:

Connections to the ignition coil if it has one, check all the ground points in the engine bay, and Crank pos sens, Cam pos sens, all wiring on alarm system / immobiliser if it has one etc.

I know this may not be much help but its a start hopefully someone else will be able to provide you with more info!

[bored_Welsh_lad]

does the oil light come on??

[stuart.md]

Cheers for the replies people.

Ive been round and checked all the connections i can see under the bonnet, and cleaned all the earths etc, and sadly its made no difference. Will go round everything again when i get a chance, but there wasnt even any connectors without a good bit of slack in the cable, nothing i could see that would pull out easily. with the engine running i couldnt make it cut out by poking around in the engine bay pulling connectors etc, tho like i said will check again when i get a chance.

Its completely standard, as far as i know it doesnt have an alarm/immobiliser at all, certainly no signs of one.

bored_Welsh_lad - no the oil light doesnt come on.

[bored_Welsh_lad]

might be worth replacing the fuel relay...

[stuart.md]

Yeah the fuel pump relay might be worth a shot. If the relay switches off, does it cut the spark as well? As this feels like a sudden loss of ignition, no rough running or juddering or anything at all. Its almost annoying that it starts up again a few seconds later, if it stayed dead for a while at least it would help in trying to diagnose the problem!

[Rmachines]

where abouts are you?  sounds like it could a bit tricky to diagnose without getting it on diagnostics.   see if any one will help you out with VAG-COM?   will flag up any faults on the EFI system .

[VW BUSH]

I had an ignition switch do this to me on an escort, drove it for a year wiggling the key after it cut out to get it started

[stuart.md]

Thanks for the suggestions folks, certainly a strange one, although got to look on the bright side, everything is a learning experience

Its taking longer to restart now after it does it, i was stranded for 15 minutes earlier at the side of a busy road. Although, that time allowed me to narrow it down a bit - it isnt getting any fuel through! Like i said it seemed electrical, as its quite sudden, but a sudden fuel blockage at quite high revs i'm guessing would cause quite a sudden stop. So, i was thinking pump or relay. I cant imagine how a dodgy relay would be affected by the cornering motion though, and its definetely related to the motion (did 60 miles on the motorway earlier, didnt miss a beat, come off a roundabout and stop, true to form) so im going to whip the pump out and have a look, maybe theres something moving about that is causing a blockage or something maybe. The car sat barely used for years before I bought it a couple weeks ago, so maybe theres dirt and crap floating about in the tank / pickup.

As for the diagnostics, interesting idea, although if a fault code was logged shouldnt the car show a warning light on the dash? Also, is the diagnostics connection on these a volkswagen specific system, or is it an obd / obd2 system (car is 1995 year).

Will keep you posted.

[stuart.md]

Well... fuel pump it is!

Its cutting out more often and sometimes refusing to start, so got a multimeter on the pump plug when it was doing it and its getting its 12v supply perfectly, just pump isnt running at all. Off to the breakers tomorrow i think..