weird running problem...

[tomc at satx.rr.com (tomc)]

Hey Mike,

Back when I had my '87 16V Scirocco I had the same problem. I had a
mechanic work on it and he replaced almost everything (charging me for
everything BTW). Finally, after about $1500 and no joy I took it to the
dealer who diagnosed it as a bad distributor. $300 later I never had the
problem after that. BTW this was in BL (before list) times and you
needed veronica and archie to help you on the net.

Hope that helps,
-- 
TomC
'79 "The Project" Scirocco






Message: 5
Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2003 13:52:06 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mike Smith <smithma7@yahoo.com>
Subject: weird running problem...
To: car <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Message-ID: <20031001205206.18553.qmail@web13203.mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Monday night, I'm driving home from work.  I get off the freeway, as I
enter the next road (still in 5th and doing fine), I start to slow down
even though I'm giving it gas.  I downshift and it's still slowing. 
That's when I notice that the engine has died.  I try to pop the
clutch.  No dice.  I drift to the side of the road and stop.  I try to
restart with key.  No dice.  I thought I might be out of gas, but it
says I have a quarter tank left.  I let it sit for a bit and try again. 
Still won't start.  I eventually call a tow and have it towed to local
garage.  While waiting an hour for the truck to arrive, I try many more
times to start the car.  It never starts.  The whole time, it's turning
over, but not starting.  It's seems to be turning over at normal speed. 
Battery's fine.  Electrical seems fine.  I had the engine rebuilt at
start of year, so shouldn't be the timing belt and I haven't had any
problems with timing anyway.
 
Yesterday, the guy at the garage said first thing they did was try to
start it.  It started right up.  They let it run for a while and it
never died again.  Same thing today.  They started it right up and it
ran just fine.  They drove it around.  Still no problems.
 
I've never had it do this to me before.  It sometimes will stall while
in idle, it gets a little rough sometimes, but I've never had it stall
and not been able to start it right back up, whether by popping clutch
or using key.  Bentley's first choice:  Timing or Ignition.  What about
fuel filter?  Clogged?  If that was the case, would it just "fix itself"
over night?
 
Any ideas?

Mike
'86 red 16v