Gentlemen:
I have a problem with my '89 GTi 16v. I just replaced the distributor last
week (intermittent lack of spark: believe the wires to the Hall sensor are
frayed/broken). Replaced a tire & wheel and got rid of a VERY annoying
vibration at freeway speeds. Car felt great, ran fine. So, today I was headed
for Chicago (125 miles away), stopped for fuel, and car refused to run after
filling it up. Would start & idle just fine, but would "gag" when I tried to
open the throtle even a tiny bit. Aha - symptoms similar to what I've seen
when the homebrew fuel-enrichment module some previous owner installed (but
failed to document) decided to act up. Sure enough, a little fiddling with the
wiring to it, and it straightened up and worked. On to the lab, all fine all
the way. Even tollway speeds interrupted by toll booths stops and re-starts
didn't faze it.
Got out for lunch, and it's back to acting up, and no amount of fiddling
helps. The "module" is a relay and a pot, lying loose behind the brake fluid
reservoir. Not documented, and has several loose wires that were there when I
bought the car about 70,000 miles ago. There were wires cut, spliced, and put
together without color coding (a blue lead eventually goes to ground, for
example). I haven't found any site showing a similar installation, and I don't
know what the setting ought to be on the pot. I'm going to look for a
replacement relay (this one is definitely corroded thanks to a coolant leak
that managed to hit it squarely), but meanwhile, I'm asking for any advice or
suggestions.
I discovered that if I advanced the throttle manually (hood up, car idling
and gagging), that closing the idle microswitch would make it run. So, I made
up a little sheet metal clip that locked it into the closed position. Car
stumbles, but runs and eventually revs. Opening the idle bypass screw a turn
or so made the stumble less violent, but I'm running VERY rich, probably
getting about 15-20 mpg instead of 32 that I saw at last fillup two days ago.
Car speeds up & slows down even when idling and no one at the wheel, so I've
clearly upset the idle stability a lot.
If I knew what had been cut/spliced/bypassed, I'd exorcise the thing, but
tracing all the wiring is 'way too time-consuming to be practical or possible.
Any thoughts?
Oh, and to compound the problem, the clutch is now slipping, with 214,000
miles on probably the original. No big deal, I've replaced enough of them, but
it makes driving a car that surges and stumbles a real delight! Chicago
rush-hour traffic is the perfect place to try, by the way. At least the
streets are basically flat . . .
Ron
