knock sensor ignition fixed!

[Scott Williams <sfwilliams@home.com>]

Guys, I finally figured out what the problem was with my errant knock sensor ignition.
Y'all might remember that two weeks ago I installed a Golf GTI ignition in my Rabbit.
Given the remote locations of the rallies that I compete in, depending on hard to find
racing fuel to control detonation was starting to scare me. Even the 93 octane gas up
in the mountains is sometimes suspect.

Anyway, I did the swap and the engine ran sweetly up until about 4400 rpms. Once I hit
that point -especially when accellerating hard (I tend to do that a lot!) -the car
would buck violently. I figured it was the knock sensor dialing the timing back
because of solid lifter valve noise or something. Colin at Techtonics figured it could
be the same thing and suggested the VW Motorsports method to desensitize the system.
It turned out that this wasn't necessary.

The first step to realizing the true cause was my observation that the bucking started
when the second throttle butterfly was opened. I scratched my chin a little bit and
started looking at the connections to the throttle switches. They were all good with
no cut lines or corroded connectors. Then, I scrounged through my parts bin and found
another set of switches and replaced them.

VOILA! The problem went away completely! The moral of this story is not to believe
that junkyard parts are always fault free. Troubleshooting usually turns up some
installation or configuration error but the parts are sometimes the problem, too. :^)
--
Scott F. Williams
NJ Scirocco nut
SCCA ProRally driver
Hotrod Rabbit GTi

Check out our rally team's website!
http://www.usrallyteam.com



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