Any suggestions welcome. I have a '91 8v GTi with 120k on the clock. It ran fine until this morning but now it fires on the first turn of the key but then dies like it is struggling to idle. If you hold the throttle open it revs and chucks out blue smoke and then dies. It feels like something has seized therefore putting too much strain on the engine to idle, it's not the alternator as I've checked, could be water pump or power steering I suppose. Murphys Law says we canned our AA Home Start on 28 Oct having never used it in 5 yrs[:^(]
Blue smoke means your burning oil, sounds like something has happened to your piston rings or valve stem seals. Blown piston rings would cause low compression hence the crap idle. Im sure some one else would be able to confirm this.
pull the plug off the main pump and turn the key 1 click, if you dont hear the in-tank pump prime then theres the problem
If it wasn't for the blue smoke I'd have said it's a big air leak and check for vacuum pipes split or fallen off their connection. The smoke makes me wonder about head gasket - might have blown between two of the cylinders. Maybe that's a red herring though. I'd check RJ's suggestion, as it's quick and easy to check, and even fix. Has it overheated, been pinking, or had any other problems recently? I'd start by checking if you've got compression and a spark on all cylinders - if you don't have a compression tester, put the car in 4th, take the plugs out, and pull it forward on the drive... With your thumb over each plug hole in turn, you should be able to feel the compression, so you at least know there's some compression happening in there.
Could the timing belt have have jumped a tooth I wander. I'll check out the suggestions so far when I get home tonight.
Maybe, but you'd expect there to be a reason for that. If an engine stalls while moving / in gear then that can sometimes do it. I'd still expect it to start though, if it was only one tooth out. I was going to suggest checking the cam timing, but thought the other stuff was more likely.
Depressingly I checked both pumps in the rain this evening and they're both fine - I guess it's not looking promising.
How low have you let your fuel level get? Maybe the pumps have dragged some crud out of the tank and the engine is burning it.
Other possibilities are: - gasket blown leading to compression loss (thumb over plughole test, or come and borrow my compression tester) - cam timing skipped (less likely but still possible) - Dizzy hall sender failed (check for a spark) - Big air leak (check hoses and intake boot).
Problem solved and it was nothing so complicated..................... The only other person who gets to drive the Golf put 15 litres of diesel in it Tank drained, system flushed through, oil and filter change and all seems well again
Oh dear... that explains the blue smoke then! I guess all that diesel will be handy for cleaning things, if you've still got it! You might want to run some injector cleaner through it...
