89 Cabriolet Emissions Problems

Did you change the air filter and fuel filter? Is yours the CIS-E or the Digifant II injection system? I am not sure when VW changed over with yours.

wrote

I had this problem with an A2. I retarded the ignition though it ran not so good it passed emissions. This requires a timing light to bring back up to timing. I think I backed it up a 4 degress or a little more.

Harry

Just to up date.

She passed! New bosch cap, rotor, wire, O2 sensor. Cleaned everything really well and new vaccuum hoses. The key was setting the co mix. When I connected my dwell meter, it read 9.8. I thought how could this be? Well I got everything set 45 degrees and 900 rpm. She went from a

High carbon monoxide readings are an indication that you are running rich, period. It has nothing to do with the type of gasoline you are using, or your ignition advance. It has very little to do with your oil and your ignition system. If your ignition system were messed up and you were running 1.8 percent CO your HC readings would be off the charts (as opposed to very high, as HC is dependent on a ton of factors, including oil burning, oil condition, ignition advance, fuel, rich/lean, etc)

By the way, .33% CO is very high (assuming you mean post cat). The highest I've ever had one of my VWs (when running properly) read is about .06, and I've seen lower. Your cat may be bad (not a big surprise considering how much raw fuel you've been dumping into it), or one of your sensors is bad.

What if you measure the CO when the oil is contaminated with gas and overfull. 8^o

Congrats on passing and saving OUR lungs and planet! lol

later, dave (One out of many daves)