Stalling 91 Digifant.

Jun 03, 2004 9 Replies

I have a 91 jetta gl with digifant injection it likes to stall when its hot out, im pretty sure its an ignition problem and i have already replaced the distro, it also vapor locks if i dont turn the car off fast enough after it does stall (starter cant turn over engine). When i do catch it fast enough if i try to restart it, it wont start (just turns over a bunch). Also after letting it sit for say 30 min and it does finally decide to start its not a "normal" start it take ALOT of cranking and applying of the gas pedal and it catches a few times before it finally fires up. But if you turn the car off yourself and then try to start it again it starts right up like its brand new Any ideas? im at a lose and this is kind of depressing also, when partial throttle is applied the tach needle goes up and came back down, even tho your holding your foot at partial throttle. Coil? ignition module? car dropped on its head at birth? i wanna be able to drive my farking car


The likelihood of a bad coil or module is slim. What color spark are you getting at the plugs when hot and cold?

My guess is the typical bad transfer fuel pump in the tank.

Make sure all of your electrical connections are clean and tight!

Paul '89 Jetta GL

i dont think its the fuel pump...when it stalls it dies instantly not misfire or anything of that sort....not sure about the spark color (using platnums so prolly a little off from normal) i already pulled that pump once to test its flow (seemed good) however its fully possible that it is (i kinda hope it is i want this junk fixed) what is it that they do when the fail when hot exactly? and would that cause the as my dad puts it "vapor lock" that it gets when it stalls from the ailement (not when you do it yourself)

i dont think its the fuel pump...when it stalls it dies instantly not misfire or anything of that sort....not sure about the spark color (using platnums so prolly a little off from normal) i already pulled that pump once to test its flow (seemed good) however its fully possible that it is (i kinda hope it is i want this junk fixed) what is it that they do when the fail when hot exactly? and would that cause the as my dad puts it "vapor lock" that it gets when it stalls from the ailement (not when you do it yourself)

Wombat.

Being old enough to remember "vapor lock" on cars myself, tell your dad that fuel injected cars don't suffer from this. Because there's more pressure in the fuel lines that raise the boiling point. As another said, I think the transfer pump is a good place to start. If you can duplicate the problem, put a pressure guage on the "T" fitting on the fuel rail by the injectors and look at the reading when it's acting up.

JoBo

(sorry for double post earlier, heh) okay will try that...im really hoping its the pump i want this thing fixed lol umm if its not vapor locking then its flooding the cylinders with gas when it stalls..why would it do that?

Bad fuel pressure regulator. Fuel injectors staying open. haven't heard of those things going wrong that much though.

could it be that my ecu took a dump? i have seen multiple people with this same basic problem but no one really seems to have a definitive answer...im thinking of taking it to a mechanic :( if you stall the thing yourself it doesnt "flood" *depressed* im gonna try the gauge on the fuel rail when i get the proper adapter for the presure gauge i have..

You know, Mr. W, I had kind of a similar problem for more than a year on my 89 jet. It turned out that one of the connectors near the ecu was loose. It wasn't the ecu connector itself, but a molex connector sitting right in front of the module on the aft side of the firewall under the rain shield tray. I think that what was happening was that when it was hot out the copper was expanding just enough to make the connection intermittent, and then after the car had cooled for a half hour or so it would make decent contact again. All I had to do was resit the connectors (didn't even have to replace them) and the problem has been gone for 4 years now. It's certainly worth a look.

best o' luck - Chris

Mortal_Wombat wrote:

okay im gonna go to the dealership and get some stabilant (

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)and go to town with it on the ecu connectors and ignition module connectors too heh i realllyy hope it works.

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