16V WOES ... HELP!!

[roccit_53 at hotmail.com (C Boyko)]

Well, my experience has been that fixing it yourself saves time as well as 
money. I'd trust the list, since dealerships that either know about these 
cars, or care about them any more are scarce as hen's teeth, and they'll 
chase all over trying to find the problem, and may or may not find it. But 
the list? They'll know, down to the most subtle nuance of the symptoms, what 
it is. $2500 should get you an engine swap, including the engine. I'd rather 
spend that on some nice go fast parts, or a paint job myself. GL.
Cathy


>From: Carlos Alves <alves@email.unc.edu>
>To: scirocco-l@scirocco.org
>Subject: 16V WOES ... HELP!!
>Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2004 11:28:33 -0500
>
>Hey guys,
>
>This is my first posting on this message board. I am a student at UNC
>Chapel Hill who lives in Jersey, and i have an 87 16v with roughly
>113k on the odo. Up until about 2 weeks ago, I absolutely loved this
>car, I bought it with 87k, and it generally served me very well for
>the past 2 years, with only minimal repairs and breakdowns occuring
>because either coolant hoses broke or because the thermostat went.
>
>When it comes to working on cars, I am generally a beginner, only
>having done small things on various other cars. I am becoming
>painfully aware, however, that owning a 16v necessitates doing most of
>the repair work yourself, or forking over a LOT of cash to the damn vw
>stelaership, Which brings me to my next point.
>
>2 weeks ago, my car started sputtering and stalling at various RPM's.
>It would sputter and die down on the highway, for instance, and I'd
>have to drop it down into 4th and let the cluth out, and the car would
>start back up. Then it would proceed to function normally.
>Dumbfounded, I checked the car out and couldnt find anything wrong, so
>i took it to the VW dealer. They found some vacuum leaks on the car,
>which they fixed, cleaned out some "gunk" on the throttle body, and
>reset the fuel mixture, and said the problem was fixed. I drove the
>car home, and while home, it commenced sputtering again. So I resolved
>to drive the car back down to school when the time came and try to get
>it fixed by an expert on the 16v cars that I know near my college.
>
>Sunday, I leave, and go to my brothers place. I start smelling gas,
>open the hood, and see that the fuel filter is leaking a little
>fuel ... so I resolve to change it. Swapped a new one in, no leakage,
>and the car seemed to have stopped the sputtering problem. So, I
>leave, and roughly 30 miles later, my car breaks down, on the side of
>the highway. This time the problem seems different, almost as if the
>car is running out of gas, where the engine just dies down and i cooly
>pull off.  THe gas gauge reads 1/4, but I am thinking it is rust in
>the gas tank.
>
>My bro  comes, we put about 2 gallons of fuel in the car, and it
>drives fine for the next 30 miles, to the VW dealer. 5 miles before,
>it started dying down again, once again leading me to believe that
>rust is the culprit, seeing as how with about 2 gallons, the car would
>be good to go for roughly 40 miles before rust concentration builds up
>causing the car to die down. I put 5 dollars of gass in, and drop the
>car off.
>
>Today the VW dealer calls me back. THe problems they found, as they
>quoted, are as follows:
>
>Fuel distributor has a lot of carbon buildup. Needs to be cleaned.
>Throttle body has carbon buildup. Needs cleaning.
>O2 Sensor is sending error codes, possibly faulty..
>Spark plug wires need to be replaced.
>Distributor cap and rotor show signs of corrosion.
>
>And the grand total, $2500 for all of this work, and THEN they will
>check the car out again to see if rust in the gas tank is the actual
>culprit. Needless to say, I will NOT spend 2500 on a car I bought for
>1500. My course of action is to try to get the car down to NC and do
>most of the work myself in my free time.
>
>So, some questions are, is rust buildup in the sciroccos common? How
>dfficult would it be for someone with a beginners spin on mechanics to
>do most of the work required by the dealer? I Would of course purchase
>the Bentley manual and consult it to the finest detail. Are those
>parts expensive in it of themselves? Difficult to install?
> >From your professional opininos, does it seem as if the dealer quoted
>problems are the actual culprit? IT seems as if the leaky fuel pump
>fixed most of the sputtering problems, and the car only started acting
>up when the tank (in my opinion) neared empty and the rust
>concentration build up.
>
>Any help you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated. In your
>opinions, does it seem as if all those "carbon" infested mechanical
>parts are the reason the car is failing me?
>
>My guess is I will probably be consulting this list more frequently as
>I start to do the work on the car. I love the car, and am not willing
>to see it go without a mechanical fight. I just hope I can learn
>enough about the car so that I can fix it properly. Thanks.
>
>
>
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