1996 VW Jetta stalls upon starting

Hello again ....

I have a new problem with my daughter's 96 Jetta.

She returned last evening from school and the car sat for 1.5 hours until she tried to start it up again. When she tried, it would start and immediately die - like it would no hold an idle. She tried several times to start it to no avail.

I added some fuel system treatment to the vehicle and tried to start it. WIth a little gas the car would start, the idle would drop and the car would run rather shoddily. After a few minutes the idle would pick back up to where it usually is and the car ran fine.

I replaced the fuel filter also during the troubleshooting stage. I installed the fuel filter with the larger part of the car pointing towards the front as this is the way I found it. There weren't any makings on the fuel filter itself, but the black plastic carrier had an arrow pointing toward the front.

Can anybody offer assistace as to what I should do next?

Reply to
tombstone
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Check the fuel pressure, if you can.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Reply to
pfjw

My daughter currently has the car at school. She'll be back on Friday and I plan to see if Advance has a fuel pressure tester available as part of their loan a tool program.

I also need to order a Bentley's manual for the car.

Is there a connector on the fuel rail to screw on the tester?

Thanks!

Reply to
tombstone

Should be. If not, you may have to install one. But typically there is a test fitting somewhere on the rail.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Reply to
pfjw

Moisture in the air? Might be that ign coil especially if it is NOT a coil from the dealer. I have replaced many ign coils for the ABA engine that created a spark but was not strong enough. Almost all of them were aftermarket coils and different brands. Most were just no good so I ONLY buy them from the dealer!

Might be the coolant temperature sensor (CTS). Cheap and easy to replace. This is where a vag-com tool might help you out some. ;-)

Any smell of raw fuel like it might be leaking somewhere?

Might be a bad Crankshaft Sensor.

When or if it happens again......Check for Good Spark Good Fuel (I have seen people put diesel fuel in accidently) and fuel pressure

Reply to
dave AKA vwdoc1

I thought it was running fine but she just called and said it was acting up again. She said the car is running rough overall.

I'm trying to formulate a gameplan for tomorrow:

  1. check cap, plugs, rotor and plug wires.
  2. check fuel pressure at rail

Is there a way to check the crankshaft position switch? What should the fuel pressur be?

Thanks again guys! I'm anxious to get this thing fixed up for her.

Jeff

Reply to
tombstone

I will have some time to take a look at the car this weekend and have a few things I'm going to check.

  1. the boots, hoses leading to/from the MAF
  2. clean the MAF
  3. check plugs, wires cap and rotor
4 possibly check fuel pressure

Is there anything else that could be causing this?

Thanks again guys!

JEff

Reply to
tombstone

cheap aftermarket ignition coil? bad CranKshaft position Sensor maybe. No spark will help diagnose that! ruptured fuel pressure regulator allowing fuel into its vacuum hose.

can you scan the DTCs?

I saw one with bad connections at the main engine harness plug!

Reply to
dave AKA vwdoc1

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