Re: Black smoke

Jul 23, 2003 7 Replies

Oxygen sensor or ground wire problems. Check to see if there are brown ground wires on the coolant outlet flange on side of head. I used to move them to the intake manifold. Also some were on the manifold and would break. Check them close.


Hi. I have a VW Jetta (gasoline not diesel) '91. 2 days ago, black
> smoke suddenly started blowing from the exhaust. Also, idle became > very rough.
>
> I know this indicates a "rich" intake. Or it indicates at least that a
> large proportion of the fuel is not burnt. I tried changing the coil
> and wires. The distributor cap and rotor are pratically new. The spark
> plugs are fine. I tried this a first because the car experienced
> trouble to start when its humid or raining.
>
> I though that maybe there is a short in the wiring somewhere and the
> spark plugs do not fire consistently causing unburnt fuel problems. >
> However this "solution" changed absolutely nothing. My problem
> remains. Could someone help me on that one. Technically-wise and > price-wise.
>
> Thanks!! AL

Could be a bad ground connection to the FI unit.

Check and clean all the grounds you can find, especially the one on the valve cover area.

I just had this fixed on my '93 Jetta today, five minutes ago. $564 Cdn. Used O2 sensor, some grounding problems etc.

No more VWs for me.

Correction: mass air flow sensor plus the time they spent to figure out what the problem was.

Did I say I hate cars?

What's your shoe size? I have a nice pair of sandals (size 7.5) for sale.

You had to put $500 into a 10 yr old car, and you're pissed about that? WTF? That sounds totally reasonable to me.

I agree. I just did this last fall on my 95 Camry that had a stalling problem. The cost was about $700 US. Still, given it's 8 years old, has 125,000 miles, and has been very reliable, I thought the expense was completely reasonable.

I have a pair of sandals. How about socks? I need socks.

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