Sluggish performance

Hey Guys!
Driving into work this morning and slowed down for a red traffic light like normal crawl up to the lights in first gear and the car went dead. had to turn the key back on. both lights came on when the engine cut out (oil light and generator light).

Then today driving home I was driving past the school zone (40km zone) and the car was all over the shop....very sluggish...couldn't hold one speed. It just kept losing performance for a short burst and then come back to life. Also when slowing down coming home the engine cut out as I was driving through another 40km zone. Had to hold the clutch and turn the key then and there as their were cars behind me.

Got onto the highway (80km zone) and she was fine. Ran the engine for a few mins when I got home and you can kind of hear the engine making a weird blop blop noise every 8 seconds or so. engine also smells alot like fuel! :S

Any ideas guys? Just had it fully serviced 2wks ago.

Cheers, Quin

How's your mixture setting on the carb? Might be too rich. Didn't see where you're located, but if you're in Sydney, the rain and humidity could be playing havoc with your ignition.

Also check for bare wires in your engine bay. I had the same behaviour last week and found that i had a piece of wire shorting out on the fan shroud which was cutting power whenever it touched the metal.

Could it be your manifold preheat? Mine is sluggish and stalls in the first 10 minutes of driving. I know my preheat is blocked cause the base of the carb is cold and covered in condensation and the manifold preheat pipes from the exhaust are hot to the touch.

Fuel could be pooling and not burning properly. Not sure about the blop noise though - mine doesn't do that.

You may be onto something about the humidity and rain. Had plenty of rain up here in Cairns over last couple of weeks. And today was so humid! I'll have a check for bare wires tomorrow. Cheers guys 😉

Sound like you have blocked idle fuel jet

When did you last fill up?

Might have got a bad batch of fuel.

I last filled up last Wednesday. I actually ran out of fuel on my way to work and had to ring my boss to bring some fuel to get me going. He brought me unleaded fuel (5 litres of it). That's the first time I have ever put unleaded fuel in my car since I've owned it (3yrs) I only ever use premium unleaded on my car as I have heard too many horror stories from using unleaded fuel. Maybe this is the reason for the sluggish performance?? I do remember last year about this time the car was behaving in a similar fashion and I put that down to the warm air.

IMO might be worth check your spark systems, plugs, dizzy, leads, coil sort of thing

There's nothing wrong with std unleaded in a stock VW, in fact my std 76' bug runs better on the cheap stuff.

You might have picked up some water in the last batch of fuel or the container your boss bought you the fuel in might have had old or contaminated fuel in it.

I'd pull the drain plug on the side of the carb and see what comes out.

Also check the idle solenoid on the side of the carb to make sure it's working (assuming you've got a 34 PICT carb), it's easy to check, turn the key on but don't start the car then pull the wire off the solenoid, if it's working you'll hear a clicking noise.

Blocked Idle jet.


Does your carby use an auto cut off valve? is the wire loose? ( Test that the cut off solenoid works by turning the key on but not starting the starter motor. then touch the spade clip to the connection, does it click?)

Unscrew the idle jet or Cut off solenoid, you probobly wont see a blockage but blow it out anyway and return it.

Do you have a tacho? an earthing tacho wire can cause these symptoms

have your points come loose?

Electronic ignition wires wearing on the distributor shaft spinning?

rotor in the dizzy

seemed back to normal today. ran fine without cutting out. must have been dodgy fuel??

beetleboy88 wrote:I last filled up last Wednesday. I actually ran out of fuel on my way to work and had to ring my boss to bring some fuel to get me going. He brought me unleaded fuel (5 litres of it). That's the first time I have ever put unleaded fuel in my car since I've owned it (3yrs) I only ever use premium unleaded on my car as I have heard too many horror stories from using unleaded fuel. Maybe this is the reason for the sluggish performance?? I do remember last year about this time the car was behaving in a similar fashion and I put that down to the warm air.

HI
I lose about a quarter of My power [or more] running unleaded.
I have been using Vortex or Shell 98 but have recently found a local servo still selling 91 UNLEADED without Ethanol at
145.9c a litre..
instead of 155.9c for 98 Premium..

I even got caught out once by buying 91 Unleaded with no ethanol signs anywhere...
but it had it....!!

Others say Ethanol doesn't effect their VW engines??

it seems to be an individual thing..??

My engine is tuned and checked every month and I don't do many klms.. usually around town or 30kms to another town ..


LEE

for what its worth ive been using the 91 no ethanol but also have been adding the nulon lead additive at 1 mill per liter dont if thats a right or not but seems all good so far

These cars have been running on regular unleaded since brand new in US, seeing as leaded fuel was dropped in the early 70s there.

beetleboy88 wrote:I actually ran out of fuel on my way to work

Theres the likely problem.
When you run the tank down it sucks 38 years worth of sludge and shit off the bottom of the tank into the fuel lines and carby.

And 99% of VWs only run cheap $2 plastic fuel filters which are only rock catchers and let alot of the finer crap through.

There's probably all sorts of crud now floating around in the float chamber blocking the main just at times.

no worries! thanks for all the info guys. gotta make sure to keep her topped up i guess aye!!