Hi and HELP! 96 Jetta will not start!

K's Arcade · 2005-12-28T23:23:23+00:00

Hello VW people. I have been a member of for severalyears and it's members have helped me many times. I have also been a VWowner for many years from the early air-cooled Beetle/Rabbit years andhad always been able to get myself out of jams... until now.We have a 96 2.0 Jetta GL that started running like it had lost allpower after a 1/4 tank of fuel was added when the tank was low. We livein NH and the weather is around freezing. I took the car out to testdrive and filled the tank with fresh fuel from another fill station andthe problem continued. As I was returning home the car had so littlepower it could barely make it up a hill.I did manage to get it home and into a heated garage and let it sitover night. I started it the next morning, took it for a quick testspin and it had plenty of power until I got about a 1/4 mile from homeand the power disappeared again. Once I had it back in the driveway itdied and has not started since.Now it's in the heated garage again, I dumped in some fuel anti-freezeand pulled the fuel line at the engine and cranked the engine andwatched the fuel pump into a container. It did fill the quart containerbut not as fast as I thought it should. I also noticed the engine firea few times and actually ran for a few seconds. I then reconnected thefuel supply line and cranked the engine again and it would not fire...weird? Removed the fuel line again and it tried to start again.Why would the motor try to start without any fuel pressure or supply?There is a vacuum diaphragm before the injectors that has a fuel linegoing in and out of it. What does that do? And I wonder if that hadbecome stuck closed somehow. I did pull it and the shaft with an o-ringon it does not move at all.I'm confident the motor is okay, the ignition is good and the fuel pumpis working correctly. Something seems to be shutting off the fuel tothe injectors.Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you, Keith

Dec 28, 2005 22 Replies

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dave AKA vwdoc1 20 years ago

The hardest problem to find is the one that you assume is not a problem. I have seen many a technician become stumped simply because a new distributor rotor failed.

No it is not a common thing. It is possible if some one did not properly tighten that bolt down on most vehicles not just VW or Audi. And I like to use locktite on that bolt to keep it tight! ;-)

later, dave (One out of many daves)

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K's Arcade 20 years ago

Torque: 80 ft lbs high strength Loctite # 27100

Runs very well now.

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dave AKA vwdoc1 20 years ago

Cool & congrats

IIRC So to recap...................your engine had a problem with the crank sprocket breaking away due to a loose bolt.

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