After changing virtually EVERYTHING underhood except for the wiring harness, I
think my street GTi may finally be running "as Nature intended".
One friend provided a replacement knock box which actually made the car run
worse. However, I kept it on the car thinking that the original version may
have been functioning properly. As the cooler weather ensued, the car ran
worse
from a cold start but ran a bit better as the engine warmed up BUT as ambient
temps remained in the 40s and 50s. I had previously relocated the head grounds
from the post behind the distributor to a threaded hole on the back of the
intake manifold. However, I'm not the best when it comes to wiring SO I
replaced a few connectors and soldered them together to ensure a good, clean
connection.
This made the car run much better but still not 100% - it's one of those funny
things b/c I KNOW it's not at 100% but to the casual mechanic (someone who
hasn't put 75K on the car in 3 years), it feels like a 250K example of a cheap
but sporty econobox. Then another friend provided me with a replacement ECU -
she converted her race Slorocco to Electromotive and now had 2 spares (she also
drives a 16v Slorocco on the street). I procrastinated for a few weeks and
finally got around to changing the ECU on Sunday, after fixing the SAME rear
wheel bearing that's been coming loose for about 75K miles...
At first, the car wouldn't restart but that was b/c the idiot who changed the
ECU neglected to re-connect the Hall Sensor...doh!!! Then it fired up albeit
with a sluggish, lumpy idle. On Monday morning, it fired up like I'd
remembered
a 16v should start up. It was still a bit sluggish when cold but once warmed
up, it feels like it has another 10 HP or more - woohoo!!!!
Now to figure out why it has the poor cold-start idle - then again, it's a 21
year old VW using CIS-E - chances are that this is "normal".
