It just dawned on me that I never posted my final disposition (and also to try and get this list out of suspended animation).
After 5 months of "maintenance" and having been parked for 3 1/2 years, I finally got the '89 16v GTi on the road and legal. I know I'm slow when working on cars but I had other things going on at the same time so I really didn't take me 5 months to change a timing belt, water pump, radiator, injector seals and fluid flushes - honest <G> Admittedly I hit a few snags like replacing all the hoses only to find that the radiator was leaking (probably because of the fresh hoses) or that the axle cup seal that decided to fail because I had the car on jack stands for too long but it's mostly complete now which is a huge step forward. I took the car out for a few trial runs late at night because the Safety Inspection was dead. There's nothing like trying out a car that is questionable on a sub-freezing night at 2300h when you're alone and you live by yourself in the country - call me stupid, you won't be the first. The good news was that while the brakes were a bit touchy, everything held together. The rear calipers appeared to be good but have proven to be frozen - either that or the proportioning valve has died - the front brakes don't do much but the rears work like a champ. It's fun to hurtle to a stoplight, hammer the brakes and counter-steer as the rear tries to pass the front like an old pickup truck. The other major issue was NO HEAT - the engine warmed up but the flapper door in the heater box had lost its foam. As a result, the interior remained at ambient which had been well under FREEZING!!! Fortunately a buddy of mine took care of that for me since that's one thing I didn't want to tackle - pulling the heater box with an intact interior. The running problems started to go away as the car got more exercise. As it had been parked for 3+ years, the gasoline that was in the tank was more like varnish and it smelled like it too. I added 5 gallons when the car was "in process" and I added a bottle of RedLine SI-1. While I didn't notice any change, I also hadn't driven the car much but I figured that it wouldn't hurt. The more I drove it, the more I realized that it was gutless for a 16v but that it was starting to run smoother. Always a fan of "more must be better", I added another bottle of SI-1 AND a bottle of Techron at the next fill-up. About 50 miles into that tankful, the car sputtered and suddenly started sounding like a 16v - I can't explain it but the 16v has a very unique exhaust note that sounds significantly more aggressive than 2v/cylinder VW products. Apparently all those cleaners had finally knocked all the crapola in the injectors free and they were spraying properly. The next issue was the lack of power. As had been suggested, I checked everything - vacuum lines, intake boots, injector seals - the whole gamut. I've been around these cars long enough that I thought I could find the problem. Finally I took it to my buddy who fixed the heater box after I told him "I checked everything, I'm stumped". He returned the car after checking specs and telling me that they were OK but that I should drive it to further exercise the equipment. One night, I almost made it home when I realized the dash lights were awfully dim - hmm, new alternator isn't working, eh? Fortunately I made it the remaining 3-4 miles on parking lights and a prayer. While I was underhood, I found the exciter wire had broken - an easy fix, whew. While I was at it, I decided to check the accelerator cable even though another buddy had set it for me when he was at the house - not that it's difficult, just that he'd already done it so I figured that it was OK. WRONG!!!!! I jammed a piece of wood against the accelerator pedal and checked underhood. I only had half-throttle!!! No wonder the car was gutless - duh!! 2 minute later, the car has almost double the throttle response (go figure)!!! Matthew ____________________________________________________________________________________ Food fight? Enjoy some healthy debate in the Yahoo! Answers Food & Drink Q&A. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545367
