1999 Volkswagen Golf Wont start

Hi all,

Could really use your help, Live in Canada, was a bad hard rainy winter night, car has been acting up for a couple weeks, while going 50km/h I hit a puddle "most so on the passenger side" stalled out, turning over and over finally killed the starter. Picked up a new "all german parts btw" starter and replaced, turnes over but only sounds like its gunna catch when you stop cranking it over. Replaced the Distributor cap, rotor button, plugs and wires, wire tested and getting tons of spark. Still same issue, turns over and when you stop turning the key it bounces a crank a two and stalls.

I am a noob at injectors and the dome over the engine blah blah, *sigh give me a carb...heh

Any ideas at all would be a huge help, before I hit the water once in ahile it would spit and sputter as I was in 3rd and matted the gas, when I would start it, it would idel fine, give it too much gas and stall. But now won't start at all unless you pull it and jump it, and even then it wont stay running...

Thanks for any help !!!!!!

Hi there! is the air filter soaken wet?, was just wondering if the engine sucked up some water and maybe some in the intake manifold. Do the sparkplugs getting wet with water or fuel? Does the fuel pump run? is there any water in any electrical conections? whats the battery voltage? wondering why it run for a little bit when you jump it. I know you said you have lots of spark but is it nice and blue, the ignition coil could be weak. that might be why it sputters in third also. Sorry for all the questions just tring to get a better idea where your at.

No no questions expected and answered happily

I will be honest I just got home from changing all electricals and still doing the same thing, when we took out the plugs in order from left to right, 1 - the electrode had a dew drop of water on it but the rest of the plug head was dry (might have been condensation, 2- was dry, 3 - was soaked in fuel, 4- was soaked in fuel. we left the plugs out and floored the gas petal and turned it over a few times. Replaced the plugs turned er over and still same thing, at the end when turning off the key it spits and sputters almost backfiring. I did not check the condition of the air filter. It was starting to act like this before the night of the water is why I am leaning more so towards a fuel intake issue ? It seems like it's getting too much gas, fuel pump is turning on and pumps when you turn the key sounds like its acting same as always, with all new electricals nothing is wet in that regard. I'm at a loss with the computer sensor relay whatever when it comes to now-a-days cars fuel paths...No idea where to even start, we pretty much stood there scrathin our heads and went inside for some heat and complaining.

*sigh
Honestly this car has been a dream for years and as always when it rains it pours to qoute a phrase.

ok , I think the first thing that I would do is check the fuel pressure to see what it reads and also to see if the pressure stays up and not leak down if the pressure leaks down you could have some bad fuel injectors if the pressure is to high it's probibly a bad fuel pressure regulator. whats your engine size, is it the 2.0L?. Is the ignition coil new to ?

Last edited by johno2355 on Sat Mar 15, 2008 3:47 am; edited 1 time in total

if some of the plugs are fuel soak check your engine oil to, to see if it smells or feels like theres gas in it .you might need to change it before you start driving it again, when you get it running.

Hi Johno,

The coil is not new, its a 5 speed 2.0L gas. We used a spark gun and checked each plug, they all have tons of spark. Haven't checked the oil yet either, the car is sitting somewhere now not easy for me to get to so will check oil next time out. Will replay info then also.

It's beginning to look like I'll have to take it to someone who knows what there doing or can plug it into a puter, I dont have the kinda lesting equipment needed for fuel issues. *sigh new cars heh

I hear yeah, Let us know how it turn out. I want to say don't rule out the coil yet but I don't anything about how a spark gun works if it's an accurite test or not. Anyhow all the best of luck!

I googled "heh" starting issues and found some info on the fuel regulators, but nothing on how to test them. Some other people mentioning same sorta issues and they were saying same thing check coil and fuel reg but how do you test the fuel regulator ?

Any idea Johno

greatly appreciate the help man

the pressure regulator is easy to test if you have a fuel pressure test guage set, the cheapest i have seen in canada was in canadian tire the test kit was around $59. princess auto has got some good deals to, thats if you feel you want to try it your self. depending on the style off fuel rail you have it may have a schreader valve on it like a car valve stem for the tire fill. if thats the case you would just thread on the tester hose for the pressure guage and take your reading when you first turn the key on.(you might have to T into the high pressure fuel line if you don't have a service port on the fuel rail). if it reads high or too low you could have a regulator problem. If the pressure drops down somuch in a specific amount of time theres a fuel line leak, a check valve problem or the injectors are leaking down (they should hold pressure). And I'm Happy to help if i can. Very Happy

hey that spark gun thing, do you mean timing light?

heh yea we used a timing gun on my buddy's vehicle and the light lite up ok, we used it on mine after the plug change and it lite up a lot more. (we're back yard mechanics) heh

After thinking about it for awhile I am concerned about 2 plugs wet and 2 dry i.e

1 - 2 - 3 - 4

12 34
Dry Wet

Logic tells me since there are 2 injectors, one for 1 and 2 and one for 3 and 4, could it be a bad injector or would the car start but just run bad...Im so not good with fuel issues

the inductive pick up on the timing light you used to check the spark can pickup fairly small voltages I have used them to test certain types of pickup coil signals inside ignition distributers. So don't rule the coil out yet. Yeah the two wet plugs is a little bit of a mystry to me to , could there be a chance you got two bad new ones, lots come in packs of two, I wonder if they got droped in the store or something?what year is the car again? are you sure on the two injectors and not 4 ? I guess it could be only two. I'am gona have to look at a few more 2.0L at work so I have a better Idea. If there is only two maybe the injector for the two dry cylinders in bad and not firing at all. hey try that timing light hooked around each pair of injector wires when you crank it over let me know what happens. Cool

its a 1999 5 speed 2.0L 4 door plain jane. The dry plugs vs wet ones was when I had the old plugs in, I didnt check since the new ones were put in, I didnt have to move the dome so I am only assuming there is 2 injectors as thats all I could see. The plug electrode ends on the dry ones were brown looking and bone dry, the wet ones were black soaked.

I have yet to locate and check the inline gas filter yet either

I am at the car tomorrow afternoon so will check the plugs for gas on the ends and have a better look around

ok man sounds real good. I will check back tomorrow Cool

the gas filter on my 92 is under the right hand side of the car just ahead of the rear wheel well by the remote fuel resivior and fuel pump, maybe yours is in the same place?

just peaking in . have you checked the large connon plug on the engine for pins that are corroded.
sounds like two injectors are fireing but two are not. the ijector all share the same power supply but all have there own grounds that are switched by the ECM so look at wiring real close.

I have seen engine harrnesses do what you are trying to pin piont so don't juts look over it. check it out real close.

look at the engine grounds there are several to be ckecked and cleaned if not.

good luck

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ok so, took out eash plug and checked against the block for spark, each plug was firing and clear blue enough I could light a cigarette if needed. Each plug had gas on it after turning it over. Checked air filter (K&N) looked like it was fresh fomr the box, the air box was bone dry and clean as a whistle. Checked every wire, connector and ground we could find and all were clean free of corosion. Turn er over and turn turn tun turn put out and the sound of the airbox cap closing, then again turn turn turn and the sound of the airbox cap closing. Then again same thing, stop get out lean over engine and you can smell gas. No leaks visible at all, engine clean and nothing dripping anywhere.

Summury, getting gas, getting air, all plugs wet, tons of spark, all wiring harness and connectors all clean and connected.

*sigh, buy a chev ?

I'm really lost here.

Some long term info, about a year or just under my engine light came. Didn't seem to change performance at all..Did the ruitine checks nothing found, oil good oil pressure good. A freind had an universal code tester and laptop so we plugged into the engine, looked up the code at it told us "running lean" This happened just after install of the K&N filter. Assumed the extra airflow was giving the reading difference. Drove for almost a year like that without issues of ever starting. Week and half to two weeks ago I started the car and when I put it into first it stalled. it took me many attempts to get it started as I drove and got to high end second gear it would cut out like I was drowning it, high end third, forth same cutting in and out, but if idle at a stop purred like a kitten. Shut it off for 8 hours. turn over turn over turn over nothing, same three more times then finally start, let idle for 15 minutes then take off no problem, in third gear mat the gas it would cut in and out hold gas at 50km/h no problem, hit the gas want to die or going up a hill want to die. Did this for a week er so, then the rain storm and hit the water, I think the water issue was just a fluke more so the engine strain when I hit the puddle caused the stall. Sat for 48 hours, when I jumped it and got it going it would idle fine but same second gear high or third gear high want to die, while getting it home I forced the gas and got to 120km/h but spitted and sputtered the whole time until I got home and it has sat there since.

Sorry for info overload but I find a lot of the time due to my involvement I may forget something that might trigger the answer...

Big rhank you to all who made suggestions, it truely is appreciated.

Sad

Sad thing is that this is my first VW and after this experience I can highly doubt VW sees the inside of my wallet anytime in the future.
I miss my Ford Truck heh