Hi all

I'm calling on the wisdom of the STW collective once again!

My girlfriend is running around in my old Polo – Mk3 1.6. It will fires up then cut out, even with foot planted in the carpet… I've replaced the fuel filter, distributor and temp sensors so far…

Could it be an oxygen sensor? Lambda? MAF sensor? I'm getting really pee'd off with it now as once its running it's sweet!

Cheers, Antony

problem is you should have got a VW polo, not an effing – effing's were always much less reliable 🙁

haha thanks for that, humour is good when frustrated!

fuel pump?

Take it to a garage mate and get their machine to speak to your machine – will save a lot of effort, head scratching and possibly cash

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing

Not sure what the engine management is like on it, but firing up (assuming it runs OK when it's up) and then dying is a good sign of something like a leak between air flow metering and head, or of a faulty flow metering device (engine starts on "guestimated" values then when it kicks into closed loop control it keels over due to poor readings. Other problems could be kinked fuel hoses, blocked filters, coils failing as they warm. Need more info.

Thanks guys – the fuel pump must be fine as it drives fine when it does start (takes 10-15 attempts on a bad day, none at all on a good!)

tankslapper – I've plugged it in with a non-genuine vagcom diagnostics and the sensor in the dizzy was the only fault (engine timing, seperate problem stopping firing up at all but now solved), but maybe worth a proper job…

coffeeking – sounds good, I'll focus on a the flow metering I think. I've kept it serviced myself so I'm sure the filters are fine, although a coil is cheap enough to swap just in case. I wonder if it could be a fault in the ECU itself??

hora – I'll have to register but should be good when I do, thanks 🙂

Could just be a dodgy connector?

Ahh, but which connector?

It wont be the lambda sensor. If it fails the ECU goes into a limp home mode

If it was snuffing it at various times, not just on start up, then it could be fuel pump.

Intermittent faults with fuel pumps don't always show up on diagnostics.

My ibiza had that kind of fault and the 15-50 computer at the dealer said there was no fault at all.

Replaced it with a pump from a polo. Least favourite job ever, fishing about in a tank of unleaded, praying for a lack of static electricity. Not fun.

Food for thought on the pump then… I hope it isn't the fuel pump…