Hi all I was was driving to work this morning, my usual 5 mile journey, about 1 mile in the car suddenly loss all power for about 2 seconds. No lights came on the dash, the rev counter just dropped to 0 and no throttle response at all. After a couple of seconds it comes back as normal. Just happened 3 times in total. Any ideas what it may be? Car is a 1989 mk2 golf gti 16v kr Thanks Jason
If the cluster carried on working as before it doesn't sound like you lost ignition power, but it might have dropped enough to kill the spark but still had enough to power the cluster. Did you notice if fuel pump cut out then back in when the engine fired back up? I would have a good look at the ecu+ignition loom wiring, pop the plugs off, check pins for corrosion and make sure they are all straight, tight and fully seated in the housings. Chase wiring and look for any random bits of tape covering previous repairs. The ECU loom comes out easy enough, it unplugs in the scuttle then runs distributor, coil, earth to battery & head and a plug to coolant sensor on the side. once off you can have a good look at it. Dizzy+wiring is main thing to look at, plus coil connections for damage etc
Thanks for the reply, the plugs and plug leads are have only about 1k on them so they should be ok. I did have the alternator out last week but it was running fine until this morning. I'll have a quick look around later this evening to see if I notice anything. Thanks
Ok so I drove home yesterday from work without any drama, the car was fine. I had a quick look around and can't see any obvious problems, there were no loose connections of frayed wires etc. On the way to work this morning however it happened again, except this time the car totally stopped. It took me about 3 minutes to get the car started. It just kept turning over but not firing. When I eventually got it going it stopped twice more, however only for the second or two. There was however an almighty backfire from the car which left a large puff of black smoke in my review mirror. To be honest I don't know where to start looking, it would be better if the car just stopped and wouldn't start again. Any obvious things I need to start changing? Fuel pump relay etc? Thanks
when you were stuck did you make note of what the fuel pump was doing? it should prime on ignition and then run while engine is cranking over. what you may have is a loose connection in the dizzy from the hall sensor like pigbladder suggested, pop the cap off and have a look inside see if its full of oil or wires are damaged
hall sender can just play up ...no signs of damage etc id throw another dizzy on and see what happens if you can find one cheap
T To be honest I never noticed if the fuel pump was priming or not, I was too busy shouting at the car lol. I'll pop the cap off later and see if I can see anything.
you need a KR, 9A or ADL code one. ABF one wont work, but you might be able to swap hall sender out of one over? same goes for 8v wont fit but sensor may swap
So I pulled the dizzy cap off, no oil or loose connections, however the contacts on the cap look pretty burnt to saynitbwas only changed 1k mikes ago. Also the centre pin on the cap seems loose, you can pull it and the spring attached to it out. Is this normal?
doesnt look abnormal...yes the center thing is spring loaded and will push in? check it pushes back out by itself
So changed the coil yesterday, problem is still there. Hoping to change the hall sender at the weekend to see if that solves the problem. If it's not the hall sender what else could I be looking at? Cheers
The car finally stopped on Friday and failed to start. I've changed the coil and distributor and the fuel pump is priming. Any other ideas? Thanks
Just checked the connector it seems ok, no corrosion at all, yes the fuel pump is running when cranking the engine. Checked wiring and fuses all seem ok
If you remove the coil lead (HT) and crank do you get a spark from that? (use insulated pliers!) Seems as though the distributor is switching ok if your fuel pump cuts in on cranking, that leaves the ignition amp as a possibility if you have no spark at all, should be some tests on here for that.