Re: Stumper. WTF. New one to me. Anyone?

[Shawn C Meze <skerocdriver@juno.com>]

On Wed, 12 May 1999 "Mark Madison" <markie@proaxis.com> writes:
>on one of my cars.  84 GTI I had a cut out
>problem that finally linked itself to the ignition
>control module.  rev the motor up when the car
>is hot and then let it off to idle and it would die
>sometimes I could rev the car up and it would die
>and come back on  it was really bizzarre.
>it was the module, ran the bentley tests.. and it
>was bad bad bad.


After reading this, I decided to do something ive never done.... I opened
up my defective  (Because some of the electrical pages are cropped short)
Scirocco Bentley manual and did some reading. Wouldn't you know it, the
damn book has LOTS of neat info in there!! Who-hoo! (Sarcasm at its best.
Go away.)

I was reading thru the "Breakerless Transistorized Ignition system"
section and the 2nd paragraph says something about not leaving the
battery connected while doing electric welding. OOPS. Lots of don'ts
listed in there. (section 5 page 14 of the red A1 80-84 manual if anyone
cares to read along with me.) 

I'll be damned, the first spot of trouble happened the day after I had
the bottom shifter bracket rewelded back onto the steering rack. Damn
thing broke and all I had was 5th gear. Good thing I was at work, tig
welder fixed it right up. I didn't know about the risk of damage or I
would of went thru the hassle of reprogramming my stereo. Would of been
worth the hassle.

OK, so tomorrow I will replace the Ignition Control unit since it
controls the voltage to the coil and in turn the tachometer runs off of
the coil getting voltage.

"Im not dumb, im smaart! And I want respect!" 
I forget which movie that's from. Keeps playing over and over in my head
tho. Stupid morning radio station... 


>I'd say that the fuel pump relay might be causing this
>but if you already swapped it with a known good one.
>then it should've fixed it.


that's what I thought when I went from my backup fuel pump relay to my
3rd backup jumper wire and it started. it was just the luck of the draw
that it started when it did. It didn't fire right up either, it kinda
started and then ran. Naturally I kept my foot in it to be sure it didn't
die and it ran fine all the way back to the shop. Ran fine all the way
home with the original relay in the car. (I put in the #2 relay just to
be sure it worked. They both work.)  


>Your problem sounds electrical indeed.
>those pops are probably the car firing with flooded 
>cylinders.
>hhmmm.


Oh its totally electrical. Nothing else can kill a motor like that and
the run again a second later as if nothing were wrong. (I.E. ON/OFF flick
of a switch feeling.) 

If it were a fuel system problem, the car would die a little slower as
the fuel pressure dropped off.

When it would run again, most of the time I could hear a backfire of the
unburnt fuel in the exhaust system. (Sounds like a .40 to me.) A faulty
fuel system Wouldn't do that. 

The first time I heard it I was on the freeway. I had just lifted off of
the accelerator and was coasting when the symptoms happened so I didn't
know it had actually happened. When I got back on the gas, I was right
next to a big rig and thought "oh crap, the poor dumb bastard just blew a
tire or two"! Then as I pulled away, I saw the truck pulling over to the
side. Right about then, it happened again but without a backfire and I
realized the poor dumb bastard was me. 



>I'd say get it to shut off again with someone around
>and check for spark.


As I cranked I could seethe tach bounce a little and when that happened,
the car would sputter. Its definitely an ignition problem, just didn't
know which piece of the puzzle was at fault. Ill know more tomorrow for
sure. 

Thanks everyone for the massive response! I figured you guys would of
just deleted my post. :)


              Shawn Meze
86' Jetta GLi           82' Scirocco GTi
The Fastest, Quickest, Cleanest and
best looking Scirocco in all of San Diego!
http://www.Geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/1308/index.htm

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