Please excuse if this is a bit long but I'm going a little insane here. Car is a 1991 8V GTI. The fuse box diagram in Haynes has proved unhelpful.
First noticed no power to the central locking motor. Whilst testing stuff at the rear of the car, realised I had no reversing lights or fog lights.
Fuses on the fuse box are fine. Removed the light clusters and tested them off a battery, they are fine. Bulbs fine. Fog light switch on the dash seems to have no power to it at all. Did some reading and thought it could be the relays. Swapped the 53 relays in spaces 10&11 in case one was a dud - no difference. Tested both 53 relays with a battery & for continuity - they're fine so not both duds. Tried putting a 53 relay in space 7 as per some people online & Haynes - no difference. At this point I realised the wipers no longer worked - they did before I started messing
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated, I'm a bit alarmed by the loss of the wipers in case I've managed to screw something else electrical up in the process!
As for the central locking... it's now somewhat lower down in my priorities...
This little 1.3 idiot was my first car back in 2012, I hadn't passed my test so here is my old man looking... ok I don't really know what that expression is... by what he's driving home (shouldn't have taken me to all those VW shows if he didn't want me buying one...)
L plates on, dad taught me to drive it and I learned to change a tyre and repair wiring but not much else? I look back on having that much free time and think why didn't I do so much more?!
We could then go to such classy events as MFN and pretend like we were cool
Couple years later it and the T25 helped me leave home...
Having left though I was doing stupid miles for work and then had to move further away, my family generously said I could leave it at home if I wanted to keep it, only when I came back it was... under a tree at a farm down the road should have just sold it then but was too sentimental so here we are in 2020 rebuilding the bloody thing, I decided to go back to school so my excuse is I need something economical to get to campus and placements on farms and places the GTI doesn't fancy trying but really I think I just enjoy messing with it and it doesn't really matter if i screw it up!
Totally learning as I go, progress photos to follow
I've currently got two mk2s, an 8v GTI that's on the road... ...and a half dismantled 1.3 Ryder that I learned to drive in.
The 1.3 got abandoned 5ish years ago when I needed something different for work, was shunted around and eventually left under a tree at a family friend's house (not by me!) but I've retrieved it and would love to get it going again. Just as a learning experience really and because I'm sentimental, appreciate it's hardly worth the effort but I'm enjoying it! Trying to do as much as possible myself on the driveway.
Looking forward to seeing other cars on here (on Instagram everything seems either silly or perfect and I'd just like my cars to run, please??) and racking people's brains when I'm stumped by the project (every 5 minutes, sorry in advance)
1991 1.3 Golf Pierberg 2e3 carb. Off the road since 2015, started mucking about with it last year. As of January we were on "it starts but won't idle".
Although prob not the best starting point my uncle (way better at this stuff than me but hard to get hold of) offered to help me rebuild the carb. Would have been daft to say no, so we stripped/cleaned/rebuilt it with new diaphragms etc. and once refitted the car idled happily! That was January.
Come back to it now I'm home again and again it was starting but not idling, and then the next weekend, not even starting. Fuel def reaching the carb. Went more obvious this time, new spark plugs & HT leads because both needed doing anyway, but no spark at all to the plugs now. Replaced the ignition coil and no change. Thinking maybe distributor, but I'm out of my depth now, I've only ever had to change the cap on that! Wondered if anyone has been through the same process and could make any suggestions please?
No fuses blown, battery has good charge, turns over when you turn the key but gets no further.
