Gentlemen (gentlevolk?):
Yesterday, I went to start my GTi after it sat for a week of idleness in
the rain. It didn't fire instantly, but flooded, and it took a few minutes to
clear its throat. Got it running, and headed out the driveway for work. It
stalled at the end of the drive, and cranked wouldn't try firing. Had my wife
give me a push, and had immediate startup, but it wouldn't develop any power,
and I eventually coasted to a stop, with it stalling out again. After that,
pushing would show no sign of it trying to fire up, so we pushed it back home &
I took her Subaru to work.
I talked with a friend, and noted that I had no sign of ignition (coil lead
next to intake manifold, cranking: no spark). I was guessing maybe the coil,
and he suggested that it might be the ignition module. Neither thought that
the symptoms sounded right for a Hall-effect sensor failure: they're usually
abrupt, either good or bad, no messing around like this.
Well, we were both wrong. Not the coil (but now I know that I have a good
working spare), nor the ignition module (but now I know that I have a good
working spare!). After I swapped coils, it showed spark, and actually
started, but then went into the "no power, no speed" mode with lots of missing.
Looked under the hood, and saw a white area maybe 3/8 of an inch across on the
side of the terminal of the coil lead [to distributor]. It hadn't been there
three minutes earlier when I installed the wire onto the new coil. It rubbed
off instantly, leaving a central spot maybe 3/32 across, that was a deep pit,
right into the wire! Oh-ho! Swapped on a new [used, spare] coil lead, and I
have full power, immediate starting, etc. Apparently the rain was getting into
the connector; I suspect that there is a resistor inside... or just
carbon-cored wire. Make that "...WAS a resistor".
If the spot had been on the opposite surface, I'd have never seen it, since
it would have gotten removed by the touching needed for disconnecting.
I suspect that this has been going bad for a while. I've had several
mysterious stalling or missing [mis-firing] issues, but we had a dry summer,
and I never could track it down. A few inches of rain over several days of
showers, and it surfaced. Anyone having similar problems may want to try
swapping ONLY the coil lead.
Ron
