The empty fuel tank is great for fuel lines but not for transfer pumps. My '89 GTi was parked (not necessarily stored) for 3 years with less than a quarter tank of fuel. The car fired up fine and ran OK but it was always a bit gutless. It didn't change much as a started driving it but it developed a very strange problem that literally took me a year to diagnose.
The car would indiscriminately stall and wouldn't re-start. I'd crank the car ad nauseum with no effect. Then, at some point, the car would re-fire and run as if nothing had happened other that it not seeming to have "full power". When we finally traced this to the transfer pump, we pulled it out and it was very crusty - the result of being stored in an empty black plastic container where the local climate creates condensation. You can probably figure out the rest of that story... Check both pumps - pull the transfer pump cover and "lay hands" on the fuel lines to verify which pump you're hearing when the key cycles. It sounds a bit like the pumps cycle when the key is turned on but that the main pump isn't working once the car starts. There is about a cup of fuel in the fuel box so even if the transfer pump isn't working and the main pump is too weak to pull fuel, it should run for a good 30 seconds or more before it fuel starves. >________________________________ > From: Larry Velez <[email protected]> >To: Volkswagen a2 16v discussion list <[email protected]> >Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 12:44 PM >Subject: Re: [a2-16v-list] Reviving the 16V > >Chad, > >Unfortunately not, towed it to my parent's house and have not had time to go >over there and take another look. Had to get it off the street because the >inspection had expired) > >I am thinking it is the transfer pump. > >Will look for some time to confirm this in the coming weekends. (sucks to >not have a garage, but we are shopping for a house so this might change by >fall. Then I am really going to need your guy's help.. ha.) > >Thanks for checking in, > >Larry > >-----Original Message----- >From: [email protected] >[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chad Rebuck >Sent: Friday, May 18, 2012 1:29 PM >To: Volkswagen a2 16v discussion list >Subject: Re: [a2-16v-list] Reviving the 16V > >Hey Larry - did you get the car running? > >On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 11:59 PM, Les Noriel <[email protected]> wrote: >> If the gas in the tank is older than 3 months, I'd change it. The >> oxygenation used in commercial gasoline goes bad quickly. >> >> -Les >> On Apr 30, 2012, at 5:31 PM, Jack Simon wrote: >> >>> That's easy enough to determine, take the filler cap off and sniff at the >>> opening. If you smell what you think is turpentine, you've got a load of >>> bad gas and it ain't ever gonna start!!! >>> >>> On 30 Apr 2012, at 20:24, Chad Rebuck wrote: >>> >>> If gas was in the tank for a while it may be worthwhile to replace it >>> with fresh gas. >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> a2-16v-list mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://mail.a2-16v.com/mailman/listinfo/a2-16v-list >> >> _______________________________________________ >> a2-16v-list mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://mail.a2-16v.com/mailman/listinfo/a2-16v-list >_______________________________________________ >a2-16v-list mailing list >[email protected] >http://mail.a2-16v.com/mailman/listinfo/a2-16v-list >_______________________________________________ >a2-16v-list mailing list >[email protected] >http://mail.a2-16v.com/mailman/listinfo/a2-16v-list > > > _______________________________________________ a2-16v-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.a2-16v.com/mailman/listinfo/a2-16v-list
