1993 VW POLO mk3. - FUEL or SPARKS

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Sat 16 Feb 2013 16:20
1993 VW POLO mk3. - FUEL or SPARKS - John N

At 20 years old and 140,000 miles (10 years / 70k in my ownership) this car owes me NOTHING! It currently drives fine for anything between 8-15 miles then the engine cuts out with symptoms like fuel starvation. It might start a few minutes later but it'll die just as quickly. If however it's left for a while it'll run again for quite some time.

I need to check that a fuel mist is entering the carburation unit under the air cleaner (I'm not expecting a problem here as it runs well when running) and I have checked for a spark which is not the best but it is a spark.

As the car has been lightly rear ended since this problem started I'm not prepared to spend a lot on it but if I could get it running again I'd like to do so, if only because I don't like not understanding what has gone wrong.

Anyone got suggestions as to where best to look or to start on next?

thanks.

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Fri 22 Feb 2013 17:36
1993 VW POLO mk3. - FUEL or SPARKS - Crasher

The two most common reasons for this are the hall sender in the distributor or the coil and by far the most common out of those two is the coil.

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Fri 22 Feb 2013 17:58
1993 VW POLO mk3. - FUEL or SPARKS - unthrottled

It is going to be related to insulation breaking down somewhere in the HT circuit. Hardly surprising after 20 years!

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Fri 22 Feb 2013 18:57
1993 VW POLO mk3. - FUEL or SPARKS - Quicksilver

Check the fuel tank for rust flakes as i think this model still has the steel tank., (Plastic came a little later?).

Check the fuel filter and replace.

Good luck!

Q.

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Fri 22 Feb 2013 19:06
1993 VW POLO mk3. - FUEL or SPARKS - jc2

Carb/CFI icing??

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Mon 25 Feb 2013 17:43
1993 VW POLO mk3. - FUEL or SPARKS - John N

Thanks all. Resorted to a BOSCH diagnostic test. The tester couldn't read the codes on a car of this age (even though it connected properly) but he thought the coil was at fault - or Ignition Amplification Unit - as he liked to call it.

I replaced the coil and took it out for a run on Sunday. 15.9 miles - died, but restarted minutes later and went for another 60+ miles without a hiccup. The leads do not look too bad, I think they've been replaced before but I'll put on some replacements, clean the plugs, new air filter, distributor cap and rotor arm etc. and try again.

Panel beater pulled the rear end out in 5 mins for £20.00 whilst visiting my neighbour.

More work needed. Can you replace the Hall Sender without having to get a new / recon distributor?

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