Re: car dies for no apparent reason

["Wm. Josiah Erikson" <josiah@gsinet.net>]

I would check the alternator, starter, and battery connections. If they are
corroded, it could cause this problem.
    -Josiah
    '84 GTI
    '86 Scirocco 8v (buy me!)
    '87 QSW
    http://www.gsinet.net/~josiah

Gary Moore wrote:

> Over the last few months, I've had an incident or two each week of my '80
> Scirocco dying all of the sudden.  Usually it happened when the engine was
> idling, but it has happened while moving along under power.  The only
> warning sign I've seen is flashing of the red warning light under the
> water temp gauge, like happens when the car is first started up.  After a
> couple seconds of the light flashing, the engine just dies like I'd turned
> the ignition off.  Always, though, the car started up again easily...
>
> Until tonight.  I was stopped at an intersection.  I had the headlights on
> and the ventilation fan on full.  I noticed the instrument lighting seemed
> unusually dim, and I verified that the dimmer was turned up all the way.
> When the traffic light turned green, I hit the gas and the engine faltered
> badly.  I blipped the throttle a few times with the clutch partially
> engaged, and managed to get enough momentum to coast out of the way of
> traffic before the engine died completely.
>
> After I stopped, I tried to start the car, but the engine wouldn't even
> turn over a little bit.  The lights dimmed when I turned the key, but
> nothing else happened.  I turned everything off, went and used a pay phone
> for a few minutes, came back, and tried starting the car.  It started up
> right away and seemed fine.  I turned on the headlights--which seemed
> dim--and the engine stumbled to a stop again.  Once again, the engine
> wouldn't turn over at all.
>
> I caught a bus home, and about 90 minutes later, got a ride back down to
> the Scirocco.  It started right up when I turned the key.  I let it idle
> for about three minutes, revving the engine now and then--it seemed
> perfectly normal.  I turned on the headlights, which were again dimmer
> looking on the car parked in front of me than I expected.  Within ten or
> fifteen second, the engine died again and refused to turn over when I
> turned the key.
>
> If you've read this far--have any suggestions?  I'm thinking maybe it's
> the ignition switch, but it doesn't seem like a failing ignition switch
> would explain all of the behavior the car is displaying.
>
>  +                                         +
>    Gary Moore, Technical Editor
>    gary.moore@pobox.com, magritte@serv.net
>    http://www.drizzle.com/~magritte/
>  +                                         +
>
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