Page 1 of 1
Polo 1043 will not start, suspect fuel problem
Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 10:39 am
by mutley1
My sister has a 1993, 1043cc Polo coupe CL, which has broken down at my home and is now taking up my garage space. Apparently on driving to my house the car seemed to have the efffect of running on three cylinders but did not stall. Now the car refuses to start, not even the hint of the car firing up. The car has recently had new plugs, leads, rotor arm and distributor cap. I looked for a spark at the plugs and it appears ok, certainly enough to get some sort of firing but there is absolutely nothing. There is no smell of petrol even after turning over for a while. I`m not sure where or how to check the flow of petrol. I can hear the fuel pump whirring after switchng the ignition. I have a Haynes manual but it is not very good for fault finding. If anyone can give suggestions of how to check for fuel flow I would be grateful
Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:07 pm
by Coops
mines doing exactly the same mate, i rekon its gotta be fuel pumps, internal or external one (didnt know there was blummin 2 of em till just!lol) i checked by undoing fuel lines to external pump, then reconecting them and trying to start engine. then when i undid em again there was no pressure in the lines, hence pump cant be pumping to provide the pressure!
Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 8:02 am
by mutley1
Whereabouts are the two pumps? I think one is located under the back seat underneath a circular plastic cover and I guess located in the fuel tank (gasket sealed?) and is called fuel lifter or something like that, but unsure where the second one is....
Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 10:48 pm
by pettsy
the second one it underneath the car, just behind the drivers rear wheel.
Have you checked it actually has petrol in there? (gauge could also be faulty remember)
Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 8:45 am
by mutley1
Had another look last night. Loosened off banjo bolt going into the throttle body and turned car over. Fuel spurted out and after getting more light on the area did notice the fine mist of petrol in the chamber so fueling was ok.
Took off the distributor cap, put it back on, tried starting car again and started first time! However the car now has the original fault I described of appearing to run on three cylinders, espicially when depressing the accelerator. On closer inspection found that when I removed the 2nd spark plug lead (2nd from distributor end of the engine) there was no effect on the overall running. Removing any other lead caused the car to splutter a lot more. I checked the spark from the plug of this second lead and it appears ok. Now thinking the second cylinder has lost compression (I haven`t got a tester) Not sure if this is someting do with the valves/tappetts or someting more serious. If it is could be the end for this car. Not really sure on how to proceed. There is no oil or smoke water coming out the exhaust. Does anyone have any ideas?