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Washed motor and now it won"t run

I washed the motor in my 1990 Volk's Jetta GL 1.8 fi yesterday and now it won't run. It will crank up and run for only a short time (15 sec or so) and then it acts as if it is running out of gas. Runs on 1 or 2 cyn then cuts off. This morning I cranked it up and it run for 2 or 3 min then started doing the same thing. Will crank up for a few seconds then cut off. It has the Digifant 2 fuel system. Thanks for any help.

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Reply to
rpbbills
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Most likely water/moisture inside the distributor cap.

Remove the cap and wipe the inside dry. Dry compressed air is also fine.

Thomas

Reply to
Thomas Tornblom

|Most likely water/moisture inside the distributor cap. | |Remove the cap and wipe the inside dry. Dry compressed air is also fine.

And WD40, originally designed as a Water Displacer

Rex in Fort Worth

Reply to
Rex B

I don't recommend WD-40 on the outside of a wet distributor. Arcing spark + flammable WD-40 = almost burned up my Olds Cutlass 25 years ago. M.B.

Reply to
M.Burns

Do not spray WD40 inside the cap then clamp it back on and try to start it right away, I learned this the hard way, the propellant for WD is combustible. Nothing really happened to my distributor but from the sound of the explosion I though it had. BOOM. It's a good way to wake up, works faster than a cup of coffee.

Reply to
Rod Williams

As others have pointed out, a wet dizzy cap is the most likely cause. Had that happen to me the other day at a self-serve carwash; fortunately I've had similar problems in the past and pulled the cap to find a fair amount of water underneath it. If you pull the dizzy cap, wipe any visible moisture out with a clean towel (making sure not to leave lint or anything else that will get in the way inside the cap), and then leave it off for a few more hours (to allow any remaining moisture to evaporate), you should be good. Pulling the plug wires (one at a time, unless you're sure you'll remember the firing order) from each end and making sure that you don't have moisture in the boot on the plug end or on the cap end might also be a good idea.

If neither of those things help, double-check all your engine grounds and verify that you don't have a puddle of water in the airbox.

To help prevent future problems, (a) be a bit more careful if you're using a pressure washer to wash the engine bay and (b) consider sealing the plug wires and dizzy cap with dielectric grease. No A2 owner should be without a tube of that stuff, as these cars are rather sensitive to electrical corrosion issues.

--Kevin

Reply to
Kevin T. Broderick

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