So I finally got the Jetta on the road today. Had to wait for the duplicate title to get to the previous owner and then have him send it to me… then get time to go to DMV. So after a few weeks, and $160 at DMV I finally had the plates. I go to start it up and get it off the jacks and it won’t start :banghead: The whole time I was waiting, I was starting it usually 2-3 times a week just to keep the gas circulating and just because I could… lol. But now that I need it, it doesn’t want to start. I got it to fire a few times but it was spitting and sputtering like crazy and giving it any bit of gas
made it instantly die right out.
First I checked fuses, and the fuel pump fuse doesn’t seem to be getting power. It will show 6.2v for about .25 seconds when I turn the key on but even when cranking, I have no voltage. I can’t tell if the relay is working or not but I did swap the relay into the golf and it worked fine.
Second I checked power at the fuel pump. I don’t seem to get anything at all on the red/white wire. Ground (brown or orange) seems to be fine. Not sure what the other 2 wires go to.
Question #1: Is there an easy way to check the pressure at the rail to see if I am getting fuel or not?
Third I pulled the distributor cap/rotor and it was in pretty rough shape. Swapped it out with the Golf cap/rotor and in the process broke off the metal tab on the front of the cap that connects to the metal contact (not the plastic on the back of the cap). Thought maybe that was it, but the old distributor works fine in the Golf. Re-checked firing order too to be sure (1,3,4,2 clockwise).
Question #2: Could the broken tab cause any issues? I temp. pulled it off of the Golf and it didn’t seem to cause any running issues.
It started getting dark so I couldn’t really go any further but I’m thinking it is something with the fuel system. I tried finding a diagram that showed the current flow (I would imagine it would be ignition switch–>Fuse–>Relay–>Pump… but with some other crap mixed in; but I could be wrong).
Question #3: Anyone have some useful wiring diagrams they could possibly send me?
Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.
aw man! its like youve got the infamous electrical gremlin that plagues vw/audi cars! DAMN! im thinking you should get a manual. i purchsed one for my car on DVD, just in case.
As far as I can remember, those cars don’t have a fuel pressure test port on the rail. The brief voltage should just be the car priming the pump, but it should be 12v. It might be possible that the voltage cuts off before your meter is able to get an accurate read. You could certainly have voltage @ the fuel pump while cranking.
I have “narrowed” it down to something prior to the fuel pump relay. I am getting power to the relay and to one side of the coil, but I am not getting the ground signal to activate the relay. If I manually ground it, the relay clicks and I get power at the pump… and the car starts and runs normally. So now I get to try to figure out what the ECU doesn’t like that is making it not trigger the fuel pump. Yippy. The only code I am getting is “1n 02” which from what I have found is just a maintenance due code.
I think my previous diag. may have been useless b/c the battery in my DMM was almost dead. I replaced it and now I am showing 13.7volts at the pump. I pulled the fuel line off the filter and had my wife crank it to see what kind of pressure it was putting out and it seemed to be less than I would think so I swapped the fuel pumps between the Golf and the Jetta and at first I thought I had it fixed b/c it ran great for about 2 minutes but then after the 2 min. mark it would idle ok but if I even touched the gas pedal it would instantly stall or come pretty close to it. Rechecked the voltage and even when I press the pedal it still remains at 13.7 volts. I have to get some adapters to get my fuel pressure gauge to work (found a nice 3/8"ish nipple right on the side of the fuel rail that I can pull a small bolt out of and its basically a nipple to easily check pressure). I am at almost a complete loss on this. Visually the pressure before and after the filter seem to be equal so I don’t think its the fuel filter, but I can’t tell.
The way it is acting makes me think 100% that it is fuel related. I wouldn’t think spark would cause it to act like it is because it idles prefectly fine and just seems like it gets starved if you press the gas pedal… but I’m just at a loss. The only other thing I’ve noticed is taht there seems to be a loud ticking sound (different sound than a valve knock… but hard to explain) coming from what seems to be directly below the VW symbol on the upper intake manifold but could possibly be the fuel rail. not sure what that might be caused by.
Any ideas??? Please help… its starting to get cold in the mornings and I really don’t want to be taking the bike all winter… lol.
try asking Dave, Pete, or Brett. Or call Dave at Inline and see what he says.