Beetle questions....

beetlebailey

Ok, i know yer gonna think this is a wind up but seriously can anyone tell me what the levers on either side of the hand brake on my beetle are for??

Ok stop laughing.................I got the bug on Sunday from a guy who was selling it for someone who moved abroad and decided not to return, this guy knows nothing about beetles and as you can see neither do i!

Also the engine is a twin carb(don`t know if this makes any difference),i drove it for about 10miles or so and it just died on me while idling at traffic lights, the engine seemed to be flooded,. this happened again later that day , any ideas what it could be ??

I`m new to the whole classic car scene and this is the first beetle i`ve ever driven let alone owned, so any help advice would be great.

Silvera

The levers are to operate the "heating" system.
(I put 'heating' in inverted commas because the Beetle has a reputation of having one of the most feeble heating systems in any car!)

Re 'Flooding' problem ......could be faulty carbs, or engine/carbs set to run too low.....and no doubt the car needs a good servicing, which always helps!

BTW, welcome to the forum!

I'm also a fan of the Beetle.
What year, model is it? Pics?

Silvera.

Abelloid

They open the heaters (exchangers), can't remember which is which but one for the front and the other for the rear -



Your engine bay should look something like this, the silver tubes carry air from the fan down through the heat exchangers and into the chassis.

The carb problem could be any one of a number of problems, you might just need to reset the floats. What carbs are they? any pictures?

Abelloid

Silvera wrote:

The levers are to operate the "heating" system.
(I put 'heating' in inverted commas because the Beetle has a reputation of having one of the most feeble heating systems in any car!)

Don't know where it got that reputation, the heating is unbearable when on - I have mine removed altogether.

PaulK_CCI

JustinOval wrote:

Don't know where it got that reputation, the heating is unbearable when on - I have mine removed altogether.

A twin carb setup is great modification for the beetle, but it means the two carbs have to be setup properly and if they're out of sync, it can cause the car to stall on occasion when fully warmed up. A good sign for this is that it won't happen when the car is cold, because the automatic choke keeps the engine idling at a higher revs. You should be able to notice this when you let the car idle fully warmed up and listen to the way it's running. If it;s uneven, and the car is barely ticking over or cutting out, then she needs a good tuneup. However, it could also be a plug related problem, she could be running on 3 cylinders... and that could be caused by a host of other problems...

Regarding the heating: make sure to pull up both levers for the heating channels, and check very carefully for any hint of 'exhaust fumes'. This is vital in a beetle, because if the heat exchangers underneath the engine are in any way corroded and in poor shape (they might still look good from the outside, but the inside could be rotted through, like an exhaust muffler), exhaust fumes will leak into the hot air channels and will be guided directly into the cabin!!!! Suffice to say, that can be pretty dangerous! Now there's always a musty smell coming out when you activate the heaters, but if you genuinely smell exhaust fumes, get your nose underneath the car and remove the plastic tubes connecting the heater channels and the heat exchangers just to be safe!

beetlebailey

Thanks for all the advice,think I`ll get my mechanic to take a look.
Cheers.

Can`t seem to upload any pics, keep getting fail error!

--amadeus--

For what it's worth the 911 has exactly the same heating system and it is a notorious entry point for mice if teh car is stored over winter!

Stevo11

I had headaches so.. replaced both heat exchangers on my Beetle last year, easy job if you WD40 everthing beforehand (I hadn't..), sourced them both on the 'net for 120e AFAIR (could be wrong tho ;-) ).

Try a heel-toe action to keep the idle revs up when coming to a stop (I know.. not the easiest thing to do in a Beetle) until you clean/sync the carbs.

Steve