90 golf won't start, help

When you added "antifreeze" to your gas, I hope for the sake of your engine that you used the stuff that is meant for drying up the gasoline in your gas tank. The word "antifreeze" is the term commonly used for the fluid poured into the radiator to prevent the water in the radiator from freezing.

Yes, I live in Canada and it is something we add on a regulaer basis for most of the country ( I doubt anyone here has not experience frozen gas lines at some point).

compression fuel spark

Something is not right. Maybe the fuel pump relay, wiring to the fuel injectors. I will now ask the stupid questions....................got fuel in the tank? Got a correctly timed timing belt? Sorry but I had to ask. ;-)

Did you test fuel pressure and quality. You should be able to get a gauge, hose and clamps to test pressure. If your ears are real good you might be able to hear the injectors click while someone cranks over the engine.

Relay seems to be working, haven't checked the wiring to the injectors, but if I turn the key to the on position 10 or 15 times (getting the fuel pump to turn on each time for a sec before starting) the car does start for a moment, so I don't think the injectors are the problem. And yes there is fuel in the tank, actually I wondered about the quality of the fuel since all the problems occurred on one fill up, so I added 20 litres of the highest Octane available (102 here). Timing belt was just done a year ago, and everything was running good before this.Remember the car did run for 3 days normal between the first time dying and coming back and the second time dying and never recovering. It ran like a charm for those 3 days, no hesition, no lack or power nothing (I actually assumed that there was a loose wire the first time and I had reconnected it properly while checking things over right before it restarted)

Testing the pressure is something I've never done before and presently don't have the proper tools for, maybe I don't have any choice. Another question, are the Bentley books much better then Haynes?

You could remove the relay and jump the proper wires. This will run the fuel pump so you can eliminate that as being a problem. I have seen crud build up at the main fuel pump housing inlet so that no fuel could get to the pump and also block the transfer pump strainer.

Someone recently posted a similar problem to yours and it was a bad/broken crankshaft sprocket. Timing belt looked new but since that sprocket was broken the engine timing was off. So don't ASSuME that your belt is installed correctly. It is best to triple check it!! Another person posted that his problem was the distributor plug not making contact with the distributor terminals.

Usually if the ground wiring breaks, ground wires for the ECM IIRC, at the intake manifold or coolant flange.....this usually causes problems running rich.

It is rough to diagnose things without being close to hear it and see it. :-(

Compression Fuel Spark

what is the engine not getting?

good luck! later, dave (One out of many daves)

"E" wrote

I assume you checked for spark. Try priming your engine with starter spray or a small amount of fuel in each cylinder by removing the spark plugs. If it trys to start or kick over you know it is fuel related IF it is not kicking now.

Harry

Pull the center ignition wire out of the distributor and lay it on the valve cover or somewhere in close proximity to ground so you can watch the spark jump from the wire to ground. Have someone crank the engine and watch the spark. Yellow or oragne is very weak and indicates a coil problem. Bright blue is hot and what it should be. If it is blue, check for problems with the fuel system. Pressure regulator, etc. Are the spark plugs clean or covered with carbon? Heavy carbon indicates running rich and points to the Temp II sensor (blue one). Easy fix and cheap. TEMiller

Ok, I did the centre ignition wire test, and it didn't look all that blue to me, so there is now a new coil, and I replaced both the blue and the black temp sensors since they were cheap. Now I have created another problem, while replacing the coil I broke a terminal off a sensor (I think) which I cannot identify. It is a single connector that screws into a holder which in turn is bolted down with one of the valve cover bolts. The wire terminal had broken off in the past and caused the car to stall out and run very badly, but I replaced the wire end and it went back to normal. This time the connection on the sensor (I pretty sure its a sensor of some sort) broke clean off, and there is no way to reattach it. But I need to know what it is before I can order it or find out how much its gonna set me back. Can Anyone identify this part?

I know it will cause starting problems so I cannot proceed any further till it is replaced, it was fine till my sleeve hooked it ( I even put a new terminal on the wire last week to be sure that wasn't the problem in the first place). I will take a digital photo of it tommorrow and email it to anyone who thinks they can help.

Update:

Car still not running, the following is a list of things done to date: new coil (Bosch) new wires (Bosch Premium) new plugs (Bosch) new fuel filter replaced some ground ends on the engine to eliminate the possiblity new fuel pump relay replaced both temp sensors with new ones

I had run power to the main fuel pump before and it does turn, however, today I disconnected the main fuel line from the rail and it is dry inside, put it in a bottle and turned the car over quickly and nothing came out. So now there are 2 possiblities (neither that I like) the power or ground wire to the main pump is broken or the fuel line is plugged. So 2 questions, when the car is running, does the main fuel pump have continious power or does the relay kick in and out (wondering if I can run power with a switch on the dash for a temporary fix, at least till it gets above freezing) and 2nd is the main fuel line the one that is greenish clear? I want to try to remove the main line and see if I can get any flow at the pump itself.

When the ignition is turned on, the transfer pump turns, to charge the line, thats not a problem, I can hear it turn. The wire diagram in the Haynes manual shows the tranfer and main pump being on the same wires for power and splitting just before the main pump. if this is true then both pumps should come on together all the time. I know the main pump works when I give it an alternative power line and ground. The big question is can I leave that new line in wirthout going to the relay and just put a switch on the dash for now. at least till it warms up around here and I can get some money together to get more parts.

I have seen 2 main fuel pump boxes with clogged inlets so the fuel was not getting to the main fuel pump. Fuel pump should get continuous power with the engine idling and ign ON.

Over the past 2 days I found coroded power wires to the main pump, they have been replaced with brand new wires, I had the transfer pump out and the screen was like new it was so clean. I now have fuel pressure at the rail, so the fuel is there no problem. However the car still does not want to start. I have through the trouble shooting in both the Haynes and Bentley books and so far I cannot figure out where to look next. Everything they suggest has (except testing the ECU) has been done. It is my belief that the coroded power lines were the original problem, they were barely making contact when they did make contact. Which explains why the car would start for a couple of seconds every now and then. The reason the car didn't start when I jumped power from the battery to the fuel pump is the wire harness at the pump crosses the + and - lines inside the rubber boot, so it looked like + on the right and - on the left, was in fact the other way around, so I was turning the pump backwards (ie no fuel to the engine). I guess now I have to wait till things warm up a bit and see if she'll start, I hoping that -21C is the reason she doesn't want to go even though the block heater and the battery warmer are both plugged in. There's plently of gasline antifreeze in the fuel, and its flowing out at the rail fine. I'll have to make an LED test light to continue with ECU and injector wire testing.

Any odd ball things people have found that stopped their car from running wouldn't hurt at this point, really don't like riding the damn bus 1.5 hours each way to work.

Thanks to all those who have made suggestions, She will run again, one way or another.

Oh the mystery sensor is the after run fan switch, someone installed it on the front of the engine instead of the rear. So it is not an issue. Even when I grounded the wire the fan never came on anyway so it wasn't doing a damn thing before I broke it, don't really need that for a couple of more monthes anyway, not much chance of excessive heat in Canada this time of year.

I just went through a 96 Golf not starting. The owner tried different things and finally brought it to me. It was the timing belt.

So start with the basics to make sure you have compression, fuel and proper spark.

later, dave (One out of many daves)

Pull your timing belt cover, remove the distributor cap and remove the plug on the bell-housing. Make sure #1 piston is at TDC (remove sparkplug to check) Make sure the crank is at 0 (through hole in bell-housing) Check the center of the rotor is pointing at the mark on the distributor body (towards cylinder #1) Check the timing mark on the cam pulley lines up with the mark on the valve cover. You might have a few teeth missing from your timing belt or your crankshaft timing belt pulley might have loosened and slipped out of time. Just happened to me and my 130K miles 96 Jetta. Had to replace the pulley and the bolt using Loctite to make sure it doesn't come loose again. The timing marks might be different on your 90 Golf. Good luck! K

In regards to the compression, with the plugs in the crankshaft is really hard to turn, with them out it gets a whole lot easier, other then that how do I check the compression?

I changed the timing belt and check it 4 or 5 times after turn the engine over, and the marks all still line up.

Yesterday I pulled the No. 4 plug and layed it on the engine and turned it over. There was little to no spark, the no.1 plug had lots of spark, so I'm tring a new distributor cap and rotor button. Is it possible for the hall sender to cause this problem?

compression should be measured with a tool. ;-)

yeah probably possible. maybe even the hall sensor wiring inside of the distributor faulty.

could be the spark plug wires, dist. cap or rotor. when you pulled the spark plugs out what did they look like? wet and black or dry and brown/gray??

good luck and let us know what you find! later, dave (One out of many daves)

Well there are no teeth missing on any of the crank, cam or intermediate sprockets and the old timing belt was actually in pretty good shape really, The spark plugs were pretty black coming out, but have been replaced, as have the wires and the distributor cap. All plugs have fire, according to the spark tester I picked up.

Yesterday I treid moving the intermediate shaft a few teeth so that the rotor actually point towards and just before #1 plug wire when #1 cly. was TDC but still nothing. going back today to retrace my way through everything I done.