Mk5 golf 1.4 problem

gooner99

Hi. My wife was in a town last week and the car wouldn't start, good bit from home. A friend recommended a local guy to fix it, does all his work for him. He fixed it, said it was the fuel pump and installed one he got from the scrappie. Was going fine until Today. We were driving along and it started to lose power, throttle seemed to get stiff and eventually cut out. Started it again and it went fine for another few miles then same thing again. Every time it would go for a wee while then start to lose power and cut out, but start again and run for another while. Now when we left home we had over a half tank and this problem started when we were at a quarter tank and continued on past this until I stopped for petrol. After I added the petrol we were up over a half tank again and had no problem driving 20-30 miles home. Strange that it should go once the fuel level went up, unless the fuel gauge is faulty now and the tank was near empty when showing quarter full, but never had an issue with it before. Anyone any ideas what it could be now. Sounds like it could be fuel related, but what is the likely cause?

Bigus

Change fuel filter, but it could also be internally collapsing pipes, your more petrol in the tank is a good diagnosis to cut down the possible causes, ie not spark related. First pump going looks like a symptom rather than root cause.

gooner99

Cheers for that.Will bring it in to my usual indy Tomorrow

recyclebin

Any warning lights on the dash? It could be a faulty throttle sensor.

gooner99

No lights now, but when the original problem where it woudn't turn over occured these two lights were staying on.

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/warning-light/emissions-control-lamp

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/warning-light/petrol-engine-management-lamp

porsche boy

It might be the pump you got is on the way out.

gooner99

Decided to tag on to this thread rather than start a new one. Original problem turned out to be the fuel pump. The guy we got to tow it replaced it with another second hand one. We then started to get another problem that is still there. Bear in mind this only happens when the petrol gauge goes below the last quarter. What happens is that the car seems to lose power and if you press on the accelerator there is no response.The usual fix is to slow down to a stop. The car usually idles fine,but sometimes stalls. If it idles you can simply drive off again and it's fine for another number of miles. If it stalls you can start it no problem and drive off. My regular indy was unfortunately out of the game for a few weeks so haven't gotten to the bottom of it with him. In the meantime I changed the fuel filter on the off chance that that was the problem, but no it's still there. Short term solution has been to keep her topped up. Now one thing that was suggested to me, is it possible that the fuel pump that replaced the original was a bit shorter and as a result it's having a problem pumping fuel from the tank when the level drops. Is it possible that there are different length pumps for the mk5?

tossy

Im pretty sure that you need to run an adaption on the replacement fuel pump when you fit it, not sure if this applies to new pumps only or second hand ones, it won't function properly until you do.

*Kol*

sounds like the second hand pump is either not the correct part or is on its last legs too.

Bigus

*Kol* wrote: »

sounds like the second hand pump is either not the correct part or is on its last legs too.

Yeah and a brand new one wouldn't break the banks , especially as the missus is the driver, no Money would pay you to put up with the nagging or worse still , I need a new car cos my old one keeps letting me down :eek:

gooner99

tossy wrote: »

Im pretty sure that you need to run an adaption on the replacement fuel pump when you fit it, not sure if this applies to new pumps only or second hand ones, it won't function properly until you do.

Thanks for the reply. What exactly is the "adaption" that you refer to?

gooner99

*Kol* wrote: »

sounds like the second hand pump is either not the correct part or is on its last legs too.

Could be,that's the problem with second hand parts.

gooner99

Bigus wrote: »

Yeah and a brand new one wouldn't break the banks , especially as the missus is the driver, no Money would pay you to put up with the nagging or worse still , I need a new car cos my old one keeps letting me down :eek:

I didn't set out the fit a second hand part. As you can see from the original post the car wouldn't start and a mechanic local to where it broke down towed it and reported the following day it was the fuel pump and that he replaced it with a second hand one. I would normally fit new parts,especially parts like this.