NO! MY CAR!

[SteveXs2]

Alrighty, worst thing to ever happen.

Tonight, a friend of mine was going to a dryland training thing for snowboarding at this gymnastic place to use the trampolines, so, since I've been borrowing his movie for the last 2 weeks and since the trampoline place is only like a 5 minute drive away, I said I'd meet him there and drop off his DVD.

So anyways, they're (him & his friends) are waiting for the freestyle ski team guy to come and open up the building for them, so he asks if he can drive my car. I say "It's a standard" and he tells me he's driven it before.

In the meantime, one of his friends gets in and starts it up because i told him it had to be on for him to use the horn (he's 14 and still fascinated by a horn, he's a cool kid though). Anyways, he doesn't push in the clutch and because I left it in 1st (no ebrake) it jerks forward and stalls. No harm done.

Then my friend gets in, he puts it in reverse and backs up. Goes to put it in 1st but puts it in 3rd and stalls. Again, no harm done. My 1st is really hard to get into for some reason, basically, it's crap. So anyways, I get in a he puts in in first, but he lets out the clutch too soon and the car starts jerkin, i tell him to push the clutch in and we ease to a stop. No harm done, as I thought. We went to start it up again... no luck.

At this point I'm really scared because, although I only paid $300 for this car THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL I'M GOING TO GET A CAR AS GOOD AS THIS FOR $300 AGAIN. So I get in and try to start it up, no luck again. They push me backwards and I stop in the park lot and we try to start it for the next 5 minutes, giving it gas while turning the key and so on.

Again, NO LUCK! :(

So I go inside the place and we wait a little while because my friend thinks it's just flooded. We go outside, better luck, but it's not starting. I'll get it up to about 1,000RPM with the gas to the floor. We go in for a bit longer, come back out, 2,000RPM before it dies. So, I call my dad, he comes down and tries starting it up, this time, with the hood open, we see smoke coming from the engine that smells like gas. Also, there's oil dripping out (WTF?).

He manages to get it to drive (barely), it sounds disgusting but stills picks up speed eventually, I follow behind him in his truck and look at my poor car struggling to drive.

So anyways, we get it open and take a look, we see a bit where the smoke is coming from, see there's barely any oil, and I can hear a drip.

We're leaving it for tomorrow to check and see what's wrong when there's light, but my dad is thinking there's a blown gasket or a hose is off or something.

I'm really hoping my car isn't screwed, I seriously still can't believe I got this for $300, it drives fine, I love driving it, and it's my baby.

Wish me luck, I've got my fingers crossed.

P.S. This is the first time in a long time I've been choked about something, I love this car!

[SteveXs2]

BTW, my friend says if we can't fix it he'll pay me what I paid for the car... $300... what the hell am I supposed to do with $300. Even my friend's 86 Jetta Diesel with over 500,000km on it is $500.

I'm so bummed :(

[MKIIVR6]

Almost sounds like timing belt may have slipped a tooth or two with all of the jerking and abuse that was going on. Or another possibility, though rare, would be the chance of the intermediate sprocket pin breaking. There is a pin that keeps the shaft and the sprocket in consistent motion. Without it the pulley would not spin in synch with the shaft. The intermediate shaft runs your distributor and your oil pump. However the chances of this pin breaking are rare. Good luck, Steve. Let us know what you find out.

[Mr_Diesel]

Almost sounds like timing belt may have slipped a tooth or two with all of the jerking and abuse that was going on. Or another possibility, though rare, would be the chance of the intermediate sprocket pin breaking. There is a pin that keeps the shaft and the sprocket in consistent motion. Without it the pulley would not spin in synch with the shaft. The intermediate shaft runs your distributor and your oil pump. However the chances of this pin breaking are rare. Good luck, Steve. Let us know what you find out.


Took the words right out of my mouth... Except it would have had to slip a lot more than 1 tooth... Were talking like 4 or 5 teeth to get it to sputter like that... Had this problem with my Digifant coupe when I was putting it back together, turns out the timing was off by about 7 teeth (and still running!) Another symptom of off time is hard to start. Abuse and jerking of the motor like that can definatly cause this to happen.

[SteveXs2]

^ What about the gas exhaust coming from the engine and the drip? Thanks for the tip though, I'll pass the word over to my dad and see what he can do.

[burn_your_money]

Is it gas exhaust or oil burning on your exhaust?
Hope you get it fixed soon.

[miamiDaveGLi]

i had the same problem and it turned out to be my fuel pump was dieng
but all the abuse leads me to believe what 92vr6 and Cody said.
but it would barely start and with the pedal to the floor it would barely accelerate. might want to test your pump.

[SteveXs2]

Well, we haven't totally found out what's messed up with it, but when we were looking around we found a corroded distributor cap & rotor as well as hideous spark plugs. The car runs now, horribly. Hopefully it'll be a bit better once we get the new parts in there.

Oil change & new oil filter will probably be coming up next weekend because my car has been guzzling gas.

[burn_your_money]

i had the same problem and it turned out to be my fuel pump was dieng
but all the abuse leads me to believe what 92vr6 and Cody said.
but it would barely start and with the pedal to the floor it would barely accelerate. might want to test your pump.

Just something to add to this, look at your fuel filter, it may need to be replaced.

[SteveXs2]

Alright, i need some help now.

We replaced the distributor cap, rotor & all 4 spark plugs. That set me $77 in the hole :(

Anyways, after that, nothing. We tried all sorts of different stuff with barely any luck. It's gotten to the point now where we can start it, but if you let off the gas AT ALL it'll die. We drove it but had to roll through every stop sign and it sounds disgusting.

Anyways, we've got the cover off the timing belt and we're going to be trying with that. What we need to know is, is there a way of checking if it's off? Or are we going to have to guess & check or whatever?

You guys have definitely helped alot, I can't believe this happened to my car just from it jerking, I'm so pissed.

[HyperNut]

Does the engine rev up about 100 to 200 rpm just before it dies? Is there buzzing coming from the trunk?

[SteveXs2]

^ I have to give it gas just to get it to start in which case if I take my foot off the gas the RPMs drop until it's off. There is a sort of electrical sound that used to be coming from the engine but I'm not sure if it's still there.

[jettadude]

if its running way to rich, try unplugging the O2 sensor, and coolant temp, and start it and keep making combanations with those 2, they affect fuel the most. but never plug any sensor in while the car is running or the key is in the on position. you can blow your ECU.

[miamiDaveGLi]

sounding more and more like the fuel pump to me man

[jettadude]

nah the fuel pump wouldn't cause it to run rich, try the fuel pressure reagulator.

[burn_your_money]

How does the airfilter look?
What is your engine code? If you tell me that I will type up what Mr. Bentley has to has about timing. Yes you can check it. Conviniently you can go to Canadia Tire and rent the tools you neeed for free.
You should check to see how well your spark plugs are working.
Here's how
To check for spark, turn the ignition off and remove a connector from one of the spark plugs. Connect it to a known goo d plug, preferably a new plug, and hold the plug with insulated pliers so that the outer electrode is grounded on the engine.
While a helper actutes the starter, look for a spark in the spark plug gap. A bright blue spark indicated a healthy ignition system. A yellow-orange spark is weaker and indicated that while the ignition system is working, it is not operating at peak efficiency. Check the condition of the ignition system components as described in .......
This is the time where you visit http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0837603420/qid=1099237510/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/701-7201160-8937925 and buy a bentley.

[miamiDaveGLi]

nah the fuel pump wouldn't cause it to run rich, try the fuel pressure reagulator.
i dident mean the fuel pump is causing it to run rich it would be too lean barely getting enough to idle properly. thats what was happening to my gli last year .the accleration was weak it would stop at certin rpms,and sputter .i was so pissed lol it caused mt to lose to a honda civic with two chicks in it LOL :evil: filters can also cause idling and hard starting .
edit
YES BUY A BENTLEY !!!:D

[GoodDayForADrive]

I had this same revving to keep the car on problem when I put my new manifold on, and tried bolting up that hole in the back. Air was still getting in, so basically seems like you're just getting too much air, or too little gas.. I'm not sure what all to check for for that though :?

[burn_your_money]

I still think the first thing you should check is the timing. It doesn't seem like to difficult of a proceedure to check. After that, I would think you should do the check I mentioned above, then once you have ruled out your ignition, then check the fuel and air delivery.

[SteveXs2]

Alright, we've given up on the timing, we moved it +- 3 teeth and tried it out on each of those and we left it on something like +2 from where we started which was where it ran the best, but we're not going to go any more for risk of pistons hitting the valves.

We're going to check the fuel pump later I suppose but for now I'm just gonna let it sit there until next weekend, yay, I get to get rides to school from my mom again.

[SteveXs2]

http://gethyped.net/stevepics/POSIdle.AVI (3mb)

That's how awful it is right now :(:(

I can't believe this.

[2002maniac]

Even if its only off one or two teeth it will still run crappy. Set the bottom end at #1TDC line up the mark on the flywheel(not the notch you use when setting ignition timing, the little one slightly to the right of it) If you cant find the mark remove the #1 sparkplug and stick a screwdriver in there, turn the motor carefully by hand until you can feel TDC. Now check the OT mark on the cam gear, it should line up exactly with the mark on the timing belt cover. Good luck

[Mr_Diesel]

Even if its only off one or two teeth it will still run crappy. Set the bottom end at #1TDC line up the mark on the flywheel(not the notch you use when setting ignition timing, the little one slightly to the right of it) If you cant find the mark remove the #1 sparkplug and stick a screwdriver in there, turn the motor carefully by hand until you can feel TDC. Now check the OT mark on the cam gear, it should line up exactly with the mark on the timing belt cover. Good luck

That sounds fabulous... This guy knows his ****... Try fixing your timing and see what happens. LOL, that video is funny, btw... It sounds like a true VW now.

[burn_your_money]

Another possible cause could be the injectors.

Seriously though, a Bentley is your best friend. At first I thought $50 was alot, so I bought a $20 Haynes. After I bought the Bentley, I realized that I had spent $20 on expensive rags....

[thedurtyGLI]

look for broken grounds for the ecu.... same **** happened to my car... jerking and whatnot on old VW wiring is no good... wires are brittle when they're old... bet you that's what's it... and you're problem with finding first is easy, new bushing kit.

[SteveXs2]

fixed :)

[burn_your_money]

fixed :)

Don't spare the details.

[Mr_Diesel]

fixed :)

Don't spare the details.

LOL, really... We don't care to know what was wrong... :?

[SteveXs2]

I don't even know the full details of what the mechanic did. Timing belt was off one notch, she replaced a gasket and something with the throttle body, something to do with the air intake.

[miamiDaveGLi]

I don't even know the full details of what the mechanic did. Timing belt was off one notch, she replaced a gasket and something with the throttle body, something to do with the air intake. SHE :D
killer ,chick mechaninc :D

[SteveXs2]

heh, actually that was a typo

Anyways, Here's exactly what the invoice says:



Reset camshaft timing - out one tooth

check for air intake leaks - ok

set and adjust air intake pleum ($105)

replace valve cover gasket - had to replace in order to diagnos vehicle

clean throttle body and set idle repair

*needs possible springs and seals*



Can't wait til spring so I can get rid of this thing, hopefully I'll find an A3 Jetta / Golf for a decent price or a much nicer A2 Jetta.

[burn_your_money]

That's not fun man. I was pretty bummed when I found out my Jetta was a POS.