1991 Volkswagen Polo strange overheating/starting problems
Year: 1991
Variant: Fox 1043cc, Petrol, Injection
Categories:
Running Rough, Starting & Power Loss
Got a plethora of weird faults, I would list them all individually but I think they might be related, please help!
1. When starting from cold the engine will tick over very roughly for the first 30 seconds or so, sometimes you need to hold the throttle open a little bit to raise the revs, then it will run smoothly. It's been doing this for some time on and off, but now it does this every time from cold.
2. Water temperature guage raises to about 110 degrees when driving, which is quite scary, the warning light also comes on. Last time I was going down the motorway the needle actually went off the scale. Yet when I stopped and looked under the bonnet, there way no steam, or leaks anywhere.
3. Hissing/bubbling/squeaking noise when driving the car, it's bad at tickover, when you raise the revs, the noise gets quicker and louder. when moving, it's the same.
The car has only done 40k miles, which decent for a vehicle that's nearly 17 years old. It has had a history of overheating which I 'fixed' by removing the radiator and flushing it. For three or four months it was fine, however when I flushed the engine I notied that water was coming out brown. Rust? Oil?
1. When starting from cold the engine will tick over very roughly for the first 30 seconds or so, sometimes you need to hold the throttle open a little bit to raise the revs, then it will run smoothly. It's been doing this for some time on and off, but now it does this every time from cold.
2. Water temperature guage raises to about 110 degrees when driving, which is quite scary, the warning light also comes on. Last time I was going down the motorway the needle actually went off the scale. Yet when I stopped and looked under the bonnet, there way no steam, or leaks anywhere.
3. Hissing/bubbling/squeaking noise when driving the car, it's bad at tickover, when you raise the revs, the noise gets quicker and louder. when moving, it's the same.
The car has only done 40k miles, which decent for a vehicle that's nearly 17 years old. It has had a history of overheating which I 'fixed' by removing the radiator and flushing it. For three or four months it was fine, however when I flushed the engine I notied that water was coming out brown. Rust? Oil?
Posted: Nov 27, 2007 (16 years ago)
Got some problems there HairyDan!
1. This sounds like a Fuel problem either with the injector system or Carb, Have you changed the air and fuel filters recently?
2. Are you sure you bled the system correctly when you re-installed the radiator? Could be an airlock.
3. Not a clue on this bit.
I assume you flushed the radiator? The water does go brown when its been in there a while nothing to worry about there.
Has the car had a good service in the past few years?
One more thing, you generally find with older cars with low mileage that they produce running faults like this as they require a regular blast out to keep the engine fresh. Do yu do very short runs every week?
1. This sounds like a Fuel problem either with the injector system or Carb, Have you changed the air and fuel filters recently?
2. Are you sure you bled the system correctly when you re-installed the radiator? Could be an airlock.
3. Not a clue on this bit.
I assume you flushed the radiator? The water does go brown when its been in there a while nothing to worry about there.
Has the car had a good service in the past few years?
One more thing, you generally find with older cars with low mileage that they produce running faults like this as they require a regular blast out to keep the engine fresh. Do yu do very short runs every week?
Posted Nov 27, 2007 (16 years ago)
Cheers for the pointers, here's a bit more info.
Air and fuel filters are 11 months/8000 miles old. Would a change be in order?
I did think an airlock initially too but I have brought it up to pressure (ran the engine a bit) and loosened the bleeding valve until water came out, problems still persisted.
The car has been in good service since I had it (nearly four years) I have performed most maintenance myself to keep costs down.
I've always used the car for short journeys but occasionally I used to go for 100-150 mile journey, in the last 6-8 months mileage has been right down with a 12 mile round trip Monday to Friday and very little usage over the weekend. I guess there's a point where you say that too low a mileage isn't a good thing?!
Low mileage was caused by previous owner, she did 15k in 14 years, I did 25k in 4...
Air and fuel filters are 11 months/8000 miles old. Would a change be in order?
I did think an airlock initially too but I have brought it up to pressure (ran the engine a bit) and loosened the bleeding valve until water came out, problems still persisted.
The car has been in good service since I had it (nearly four years) I have performed most maintenance myself to keep costs down.
I've always used the car for short journeys but occasionally I used to go for 100-150 mile journey, in the last 6-8 months mileage has been right down with a 12 mile round trip Monday to Friday and very little usage over the weekend. I guess there's a point where you say that too low a mileage isn't a good thing?!
Low mileage was caused by previous owner, she did 15k in 14 years, I did 25k in 4...
Posted Nov 27, 2007 (16 years ago)
Yeah fresh fuel and air filter would be a good start.
The point i was making about small mileage on older cars is that when you only do small journeys say 10 miles at a time the oil doesnt get enough time to warm up to its optimum temp to protect the engine fully and this can cause engine wear.
The point i was making about small mileage on older cars is that when you only do small journeys say 10 miles at a time the oil doesnt get enough time to warm up to its optimum temp to protect the engine fully and this can cause engine wear.
Posted Nov 27, 2007 (16 years ago)
Many thanks fluffyduck for your advice, I changed the air filter and bled the system (had to top it up first). I'm a bit scared of the fuel filter as it looks a bit fiddly (being that I'll have to depressurise the fuel supply system first) so I'll get a garage to do that.
It seems to be much better when I took the car out late last night for a 50 mile drive.
It seems to be much better when I took the car out late last night for a 50 mile drive.
Posted Dec 4, 2007 (16 years ago)
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