Dear VW Golf 1.6 CL (1989) diary,
Week 1 - Initial problem was the distributor cap split - Easily replaced (leads on exactly as they came off!) and it started ok. However, from there more problems occured and since then the timing has never been quite right.
Week 2 - MAIN PROBLEM: On motorways the carb lasts for about 40 miles and then splutters (unless you floor it) till it chokes itself to a stop. I have to pull it over and let it clear, before I can move away again, so the cycle continues.
Week 3 - I've got someone to clean the carb, replace the sparks, replace the air filter and the coil. Which after all that, did improve its running, but only slightly and did not resolve the main problem.
Week 5 - Someone said that the carb is icing up and I should set it to a winter setting. Is there a winter setting (I'm blowed if I can find it) on the carb?
(PS: Its now cold and wet here.)
Rabbit.
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One item you have not listed as replacing is the full HT lead set. If one of these breaks down the fault can be intermittent. I'd recommend a good set rather than a Halfords own brand set.
I'm no carb expert but I think you turn the air intake down in the winter and up in the summer but I'm not sure - I'm sure someone else can help there.
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Thanks UncleR,
I'll replace the leads just to be sure.
R.
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definatly carb icing. on side of airbox there is a thermovacumn valve has two small hoses connected to it. it uses manifold vacumn to open the warm air flap when needed. these are usually blocked with rubbish or the warm air hose is not a1. on my old 1.8 mk2 the warm air flap had seezed. new airbox base from breakers for £10. also put shell optimax petrol init will run much better.
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Exactly what I was looking for. I'll check it out tomorrow and try and get a new airbox. Also didnt know about Optimax - I'll try it since I want to keep this baby going as long as poss.
R.
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Carb icing on VW carb engines is a common problem. Ensure the warm air feed pipe between the exhaust manifold and air intake is present and not split. They have a habbit of dropping off, especially after being disturbed during engine work.
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You can pick up replacement warm air feed pipe at Halfords etc for a few pounds, it looks like a small diameter version of your home central heating flue.
When you stop to "let it clear" all you're doing is allowing the heat in the rest of the carb to permeate through to the jet and
melt the ice...
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I had carb icing on my Polo, and it was exactly as described. Travel for about 15 minutes, car would splutter and die, wait for a while and then she would start up again and I was good for the rest of my journey to work (another 15 mins). I diagnosed carb icing myself after reading a description of it in a bike mag. RAC chap said that car carbs do not ice!
Anyhow, the Polo has a flap inside the air intake which directs the air intake. This is operated by the vaccum. The vacuum pipe attached behind and below the carb - as it happens, mine was missing and the carb end was bunged up with a screw by the previous cowboy who owned the car! Test the flap by detatching and sucking on the pipe. The flap should move freely. Also there is a temperature sensor unit fitted in the air inlet/filter assembly. It's a wee orangey plastic thing (I think with a bi-metallic strip). I purchased a replacement one and it cost me about £17 and this was about three years ago. I decided that I would rather have a sensor that I knew worked rather than a scrappy one, despite the price seeming a bit steep.
I managed to fix this myself with no prior knowledge but with excellent advice from the chaps at German & Swedish, Apsley (now GSF), so it's not too difficult to do. Have fun!
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Having sorted an old Polo over the weekend, if the large diam pipe runs to the exhaust ok, and the diverter flap is not operating, look carefully at the small bore pipe that feeds the manifold vacuum to the diverter flap. It is easy enough to run the engine to check whether a vacuum exists on the diverter flap end of the pipe.
On the Polo this goes via a short length to a temp sensing valve in the air cleaner. This pipe was completely blocked with crud and the very small orifices in temp sensing valve were also blocked. Reaming out these will need a a 1mm or smaller drill. The usual piece of wire would not touch it!
pmh (was peter)
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Cheers John, I'll have a look for loose/missing air piping.
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I found something yesterday when I check out the rubber pipe that comes from the engine and directly into the air cleaner unit. It was loose and blowing hot dirty smoke (is this right?). I clamped it back onto the air cleaner and all seemed to be ok. BUT my problem still has not gone away.
This morning after driving to work, I could feel it going again but this time it did'nt splutter and stop it just had great difficulty idling without me having to blip the accelerator.
I managed to look under the hood while it was running poorly and found that if I took off the first small air pipe (there are two together this one goes to the back or the carb), it really helped. Put it back on and it struggles again.
The other small air pipe goes to a vacuum pump (?) has two exit pipes - Neither of these exist! One I imagine is for normal air and the other for hot air from the heater deflector plate from exhaust manifold, again missing.
Any further ideas? Otherwise I think I'll replace the whole lot!
ChrisO.
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Get hold of the Haynes Carburettor Manuel that covers the Pierburg carb - if out of stock at Halfords try your reference library . This will detail where the pipes should go and explains concisely how the carb works - The vacuum pump is a globe that is is fact a vacuum reservoir for the autochoke if i recall correctly . I had a similar system on a Passat and one problem that I had was a blanked off vacuum draw off at the base of the carb on which the rubber bung had perished. This was at the back of the carb just above the flange where it was bolted to the manifold and gave similar problems to yours. My 2e2 carb had 4 vacuum drawoffs of which 3 where used. I replaced the rubber bung. I also cleaned out the termo time valve. Pierburg carbs are much maligned but understand their theory (via the Haynes book) and they should be OK.
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I believe mine is a 2e2 carb too, but I must check this, since the carb is no longer the original.
It has however only one thin pipe coming from the back bottom of the carb to the air box. I'll have a look for the rubber bung and see what state its in.
Someone said to get a Webber carb, but I don't know if this will fit.
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what is your email address as have old mk1 golf haynes manuel at home will scan the pages for you and send them to you.
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sorry replied to wrong thread!
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had brainwave. on inside of bonnet or on slam panel should be a silver sticker showing the layout of the vac pipes from the airbox to the carb. this if there should help you to solve your problem. also check carb mounting block(rubber) as these split and let extra air in causing all kinds of running probs
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Thanks for the offer of the haynes manual but I've just gone and bought one, which gives a good diagram of the air cleaner parts - unfortunately minus the 2 little tubes off the left side of the airbox. I think these are key to my problem.
I'll check under the bonnet for the diagram, might need a bit of a clean first :-)
Cheers,
ChrisO.
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Did a search on Google for: pierburg carburettor VW Golf Polo
The first link that comes up is
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/?f=4&t=8799
There are many other useful links thrown up by google.
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