1986 Volkswagen Golf Driver from UK and Ireland - Comments

Nothing major:

Blown Bulbs in rear lights.

New flanges in the exhaust.

New seat cables.

A few electrical faults with the windscreen wipers.

Sun stained bumpers and trim.

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The only thing that concerns me, is that when you drive the car hard, and then slow to a stop, the car starts to stutter, but doesn't stall. If you gently rev the engine, it will pick up and drive off fine, and probably not do it again during the whole journey.

I know that Golfs a prone to carburetter faults, but I have been told that mine is fine and the seal beneath it is OK too. Does anyone have any ideas, because it is a lovely car except for the stuttering fault.

The revs are set correctly and unless you drive it hard nothing goes wrong.

I own a 1987 Golf Driver, very similar miles, etc. My Driver ALSO stutters at times when slowing to stop, can be pain... It also smells a bit of petrol when this happens...??

Funnily enough, this morning, it sounds/feels as though my carberateor could be playing up as it will stutter now when driving at normal speeds...I'm going to clean the carb out, check the fuel filter - a couple of quid from a local VW Parts Centre if a 'new' one is needs and also fill-up with some Super Unleaded and see if I can 'clear' any blockage... Odd isn't it...?!?

Did you clear up the stuttering & fuel smell? I just bought a 1988 Golf Driver and noticed similar on mine (again, same miles). The entire car shudders when standing still, although I've yet to put the car through a (proper) service.

Any advice?

Have you all had the waxstat sorted out if it is the Pierburg carb (1.6/1.8 Carb engines)? That should sort all your problems out and is a known fault.

Chris.

I own a 1986 Golf GTI, a North American model. It has the Bosch CIS-E fuel injection, and it, too stutters when I stop, but only if I push the clutch pedal in while the engine speed is over 2000 RPM. If you press the brake, and slow to less than 2000RPM - THEN push the clutch in, the car doesn't stutter nearly as much. As far as I can tell, this is normal Volkswagen behavior. Most of us in the States know that VWs have their quirks, and will behave as they please. That's why we bought them! They've got more personality than anything else. So, I wouldn't worry about the stutter. It appears to be normal, and after doing it for 130,000 miles (US), my car is perfectly fine.

I also shared your problems with the 1.8 Pierburg carb. I had it checked out and was told it had been down to "freezing" whereby the carb body becomes so cold during fast/hard driving (for me, it only happened during winter) that it stops functioning correctly. When you stop and leave it for a moment, the carb warms back up again and all is fine. I became so fed up with the problem (and nobody seemed to be able to help) that I exchanged the carb for the Webber manual replacement. No problems since.

I have not long bought my Golf Cabrio 1.8, has 90000 on the clock. Just recently it started to cut out, litterley whenever it felt like it leaving me stranded in the road, somethimes it would restart straight away, but other times it would take several minutes. Checked the fuel filler pipe and it was corroided, did all the necessary flushing of lines etc. Exstensivly checked all the other componants to do with fuel, ignition etc. but still the problem was not solved. After much searching on the net apparently it's a very common problem with the pierburg carb. The only suggestion that has worked is to replace the pierburg with a Webber carb.

I have just sorted out a spluttering/stalling problem on my daughter's 1990 Golf Driver 1.6 The problem was with the carburettor which employs quite a complicated automatic choke. There is an electrical heating element in the automatic choke housing which is controlled by a thermal 'switch' in the water hose at the point where the hose enters the cylinder head. This 'switch' had gone open circuit, that is, it was not passing 12 volts through to the heating element in the automatic choke housing and the heating element was not warming up. This meant that the choke was staying closed, and as soon as the engine warmed up it ran far too rich and spluttered and stalled. I changed the thermal 'switch' (cost £8) and this cured the problem completely. Incidentally there are two other thermal 'switches' in this water hose. One operates another heating element in the inlet manifold and one operates the radiator fan. These 'switches' are not really switches, but temperature controlled variable resistances and they are not too reliable. The one for the fan is color coded black, the one for the inlet manifold is red and the one for the carburettor is Grey. If you get any spluttering/stalling problems on Golfs or if your radiator fan doesn't come on my advice is go straight to these thermal 'switches'

I'm having trouble with my heating system in my 1992 mk2 golf driver I've just bought a new fan blower for it because some one said that that was the problem, but its still happening can anyone give me some advice on what the problem may be because its colder in my car then it is outside thanks for any help I get.

I have a Mk2 Golf driver and have suffered nearly all of the faults mentioned above. Firstly, when driving the engine would cut out/stall or high rev and that is all to do with the CO adjustment on top of the carb. If this is set correctly it should run well. But now I'm suffering with stalling problems on first start up when cold. The car would run sweet for about 10secs then start stalling and running extremely rich whereby the there was too much choke. People have told me that it is the wax-stat on the choke unit, but I beg to differ because the push rod still moves according to the engine temp and as soon as the engine is warm it runs beautifully. Also can anyone help with my heating problem, I have changed the bypass valve, radiator, thermostat, water pump and flushed the system several times. If anyone has the problems I have reply because I could tell you exactly how to fix it.

I've got a mk2 Driver and the best thing to do with them is doing a Weber converstion carb on it. It makes it faster, runs better, and save you money and fuel, but the only thing is you have a manual choke on it.