16v Intermittent Engine Probs

[Ben Patterson <bpatterson@stanford.edu>]

Hey there all -

	My 16v seems to have solved it's leaking problem by itself. 
The only way I can figure that the puddle got in back of the driver's 
seat (and mildewed the hell out of my carpets) is that I slammed the 
seatbelt in the door or something and it rained hard, and it all ran 
to that rear corner because my driveway is sloped. Got me.... it's 
been pouring like nuts for the last week and it's dry as a bone in 
there now and I haven't done a thing. I love it when problems go 
away...
	Unfortunately, this other one hasn't been going away. I've 
got a really funky thing happening with my engine on start. Sometimes 
the car will start and run fine (a little rough while it's cold, but 
rips when it warms up). About 25% of the time, I'll start it and the 
engine sounds like it's missing like hell, runs so rough it will 
barely move, but doesn't die. If I turn the car off and restart it, 
90% of the time it will go away and things will be fine again until 
the next time it happens. I've got new spark plugs, new wires, a new 
idle stabilizer, and I've been hitting all the electrical contacts 
with WD-40 like once a week or so. If I unplug the knock sensor when 
it's running like sh*t, nothing seems to change, even if I plug it 
in, bend it, whatever. Got me.... if I just turn the car off and 
start it again, it goes away most of the time. (It will happen when 
the car is hot too, so it's not limited to the cold start systems...)
	The other problem I've got (which may or may not be related) 
is that occasionally (sometimes when the car is running like sh*t and 
sometimes not), I'll start the car and the tach will jump to some 
ridiculous number (like it will be at 1100 and it will read 7-8000 or 
something crazy. If I shut her down and start it up again, most of 
the time it goes away. Any ideas? It's really starting to piss me off.
	When the car is hot, it's screaming like a banshee - great 
pull on the engine (probably helped by the hole I have in my downpipe 
flex joint which will be swapped for a TT high-flow and cat-back this 
week). It's just these random problems....argh. Any ideas?

				Ben Patterson, 86' 16v
_________________________________________________________________________
Ben Patterson 				Cell  - 650.274.7525
Networking/Macintosh			LiNCS - 650.725.4630
Systems Engineer			Email: bpatterson@stanford.edu
CRC-LiNCS/ITSS				Stanford University

"Try to remember there is no spoon..."
					- The Matrix 
______________________________________________________________________ 
___ 

--
Email problems to: scirocco-l-probs@scirocco.org  To unsubscibe send
"unsubscribe scirocco-l" in the message to majordomo@scirocco.org