Hmm... this would be inside one of the existing silencer boxes that were not renewed? I don't know, but strange that the noise has started after the work carried out on the exhaust. By the way, this is a 1.6 petrol Driver.
I was puzzled, by the way, to see a bit of double pipework as part of the downpipe/front pipe that has been fitted. Not sure why it's designed like that. Not the same, for example, as the VW Heritage part specified on their website.
My exhaust started blowing and I had the downpipe and middle section replaced. While this is basically OK and the exhaust is no longer blowing, I now detect a new and puzzling noise, difficult to describe, with a ‘metallic crackling or tinkling’ evident only on acceleration, or when needing some power on hills etc. When cruising or under engine braking downhill it disappears.
I took the car back to the garage and the foreman put it up on the ramp and invited me to inspect it with him, confirming all with the new installation seemed OK.
Any idea what might be causing this new and puzzling noise?
This 1990 Driver has supplementary high beam lights inboard of the standard H4 headlights (like a GTI?).
What is the correct designation for the bulbs that fit in the supplementary high beams?
Some years ago a separate headlight loom was fitted, which took power direct from the battery, and worked quite well but it now seems to have developed a fault such that the nearside high beam (both in the standard headlight and the extra high beam are not working. Low beam working normally both sides. It's going to fail its MOT tomorrow due to this, assuming high beams must work to pass MOT.
Will it be relatively easy for my MOT man to remove the dedicated loom and return the lights to normal spec?
Subsequently, I am considering converting to LED bulbs. Are these produced also for the supplementary high beam lights? That's why I need to know the correct designation for them in particular.
I’ve had the 10-year-old Weber carb serviced by an old-school VW specialist in his 60s – a dying breed! He also checked the gauze on the fuel uptake pipe in the tank. I’m reasonably confident now that the carb is in good nick.
Intermittent problems persist, however, which lead me to wonder whether the long-standing intermittent rough running has been a combination of things, so now excluding the carburettor might be helpful.
Current issues: occasional rough running and stalling. Today's example – rough running almost from the start on a short local trip (usually it’s been OK whilst warming up and problems only arose after running at normal temp for a while). This time, very marked stalling whenever the car not in gear under motion. Restart every few yards in traffic!...
BUT
Suddenly, back to normal! No stalling, smooth running, all purring sweetly again! The question is: what is going on?
What might be the symptoms of faulty ignition in the distributor? The only electronics in this 1990 Golf Driver 1.6 are the amplifier and the distributor I believe. Can such electronics malfunction intermittently, or are they a case of binary working vs not working.
Up-thread was a suggestion to check the wiring between the amplifier and the coil, which I admit hasn’t been done yet (new coil a couple of months ago). There was also a suggestion of upgrading the battery earth wire to that of a Mk4, which has been done.
My theory at the moment is that some kind of electrical problem has been masked by a carb fuelling problem. Does that sound reasonable?
Sounds like you are getting there with it fella, as you say a mixture of niggles more than likely. Weber carbs have no connection to the thermostat as they are manual choke unlike a pierberg carb. Worth checking and renewing for piece of mind though. EP makes a good point about carb icing and you symptons seem to match, motorway road speed and airflow will not help with this. You should have a corrogated pipe coming of the top side of the exhaust manifold into the underneath of the airbox. This carries hot air from the exhaust into the carb to prevent carb icing. If it is missing or damaged then it may not be getting the hot air that is needed. If you have an aftermarket airfilter and no airbox then replacing with a standard airbox setup is best in winter as the k&n type have no hot air feed/flap and are notorious for carb icing in winter.
Thanks kartman.
Can confirm that corrugated hose for warm air is intact, and air filter housing is standard.
Thanks, EP, for you very detailed reply and thanks for pointing out the typo, where I erroneously stated 'fuel' instead of 'temp' (corrected in my post upthread, but still extant in kartman's quoting of my post).
You have a very good point about the thermostat, and this is something I will check. Not sure if carb itself is connected to the cooling system.
I acquired a Golf Mk4 negative earth cable, which is indeed beefier, but I couldn't undo the bolt fixing it to the engine block. This is currently being sorted out by my garage man. But just applying vaseline to the battery terminals and the first earth point near the battery seems to have eased things.
As always, I suspect more than one intermittent issue with this car - been the history all along. Carb seating sorted. Earthing getting sorted. Thermostat to be investigated. Just hope the wiring between the amplifier and the coil isn't the issue as suggested upthread! The puzzling thing was how quickly the car returned to normal once I was off the motorway and onto the ring road.
I'm intrigued now to investigate the functioning of the thermostat once I get the car back, unless my garage man gets there first!
I've recently found that I can't my Driver's driver's seat to secure properly at the position I need it; it's too far back and I just need it one notch further forward.
Has anyone else had this problem and, if so, what it the remedy?
There seems to be a lot going on at the moment with this car!
I’ve recently had a stalling issue where the car would just die when stopping at a traffic light or junction. Trusty garage decided the carb base plate/gasket was leaking and it needed to be replaced, but they couldn’t get one in time for my next journey, so I had to use the car again and try and work around the same stalling issue. However, not just this, but on my regular 100-mile journey to Bristol the running got rougher and rougher, and more and more erratic, and I only just got home, with the car refusing to start and I had to wind my way backward to park by using the starter motor. (Thought the battery would die at that point, so I put it on charge but it was showing the green light in less than an hour). Phew!
Had to call AA Home Start, we tried starting and it wouldn’t, so he removed each plug in turn and these proved to be wet, so the engine had been flooding. We thought this might also be a result of the leaky base plate, and once he’d dried out the plugs and vented the cylinders, the car started just fine. Got back the 100 miles to Slough OK, though not an easy drive, just better than before.
Back in Slough my garage replaced the carb base plate, and enthused about how beautifully the car was running. And indeed it was doing great around town in Slough. So I set off again on my 100-mile trip to Bristol. The car seemed a bit under-powered, and about a third of the way in started running rough and being really low on power, but using more fuel. I was able to struggle along at around 60 (M4, this is), and then off the motorway at Bristol I really had to work hard to manage it and prevent stalling at lights, fearing I wouldn’t be able to restart. In fact, I did have to restart a couple of times, which it did, but reluctantly. Then, suddenly, it was back to normal and running as sweetly as anything again!! Justlikethat! [Tommy Cooper].
That’s strange enough, but what is stranger is that during the nightmare motorway journey, while it was misbehaving, the temp gauge dropped and went right down to zero. When later the car started to behave properly again the temp gauge was back up to its normal position (first white line on the dial)!
This suggests there’s an intermittent electrical issue going on, which reminds me of your comment upthread @kartman:
Quote
From kartman I would put money on it being the wiring that feeds the coil from the ignition amplifier. I feel the factory routing leaves little slack and the cable over the years is stretched and breaks down inside. I found my break with the car running and wiggling the wire about and got a massive shock, not recommended! Best bet is to continuity test the wires at each end with a tester with a built in buzzer. Wiggle the wiring and if the buzzer stops you have found your break. I cut the wiring back past the break and added in a new slightly longer section of wire so it didn't happen again and it has been spot on ever since. Mine still has the original coil from 1990 too.
Would the wiring you refer to have any association with the temp gauge sender or the wiring to the gauge itself? If this is an electrical issue, what would be causing these two things to be happening simultaneously? Does the wiring you refer to just consist of a single wire or multiple strands. Where is it on the wiring diagram?
Any ideas gratefully received. [Edited To replace 'fuel' with 'temp']
Sounds to me like you might be flooding the carb with the start routine you're using; I pull the choke out fully and then start with some accelerator but not pumping it. Generally starts first time, then I return the choke to about halfway, until warm up has properly started, which is almost straight away in summer.
