Scirocco Register

Since having a Weber fitted, the car now stalls when pulling up at junctions.

It had running problems before the Weber was fitted, the worst of which was a sudden loss of power with hesitation. This was more likely to start happening at higher speeds, but can occur at any speed. Often it will get progressively worse until the car loses power completely and stalls, after which it takes a while to restart (sometimes it won't get going again for ages). This problem has recurred since the Weber was fitted, so I don't think it's related to fuel supply - or if it is, it's not likely to be related to the carb (I think).

The car starts fine from cold and initially drives perfectly well.

The other significant known problem is that I have a porous fuel tank, which has been patched up with liquid metal by the RAC man and is currently holding. The filler neck was replaced previously, at which point the tank was also cleaned out (although not removed for this).

There is clean fuel at the engine bay fuel filter.

I'm getting pretty hacked off with this car, as all I want is a car I can drive for more than half a journey before something goes wrong.

Have you tried removing the swirl pot from the equation?

I had similar issues and it was all down to a combination of fuel pump... which helped, but then finally down to the swirl pot being gunged up and generally useless... You can run the car without it too, which helps if you want to source a replacement.

try a restricor in the return line (more detail in my other repy in this section a moment ago) Is the weber new? If not, change the needle valve. Mine was 2 years old, bearly looked worn, but it got to the point where the car would only idle... it'd die as soon as I tried to pull away! Changing the needle in the weber fixed it.

Hmmmm, think we may have had this conversation before but it could also be spark related. Dizzy or along those lines. My old Golf did this when the dizzy was on its way out. Shame its not a cheap fix just to rule it out.

Alex

I tried a new coil as I had one lying around - made no difference.

Borrowing an ignition amplifier to see if that's the culprit (had similar problems before and it turned out to be the cause).

I suspect the distributor will have to be next on the list.

Ed, it was posted 1st class today mate, hopefully you will have it tomorrow.

Thanks Ian - arrived yesterday, tried it today. Unfortunately made no difference, so I'll return it to you along with the clips - haven't been able to get to a Post Office yet and I can't buy postage online because it doesn't cost enough (how are people with jobs meant to post anything?).

Hi Ed

I have a distributor you can have if you need one. Was the weber brand new or used?

I've come across quite a few weber powered cars with this exact same fault (including my old white GTII), the cause being a sticking needle valve. Every instance so far, a new needle valve cured it.

if it was a brand new carb though, I'm not so sure.

If you want the distributor, I can get may mate who lives near to take it home with him but it wouldn't be until monday.

Brand new Weber. Had exactly the same problem before with the Pierburg, so I don't think it's the carb that's the problem. Thinking along the lines of vacuum leak or possibly spark (but seems a bit intermittent for that - I'd have thought if the distributor was duff I wouldn't get periods when the car drives essentially normally).

Are all the vac pipes connected? Should only be one on the back of the carb going to the air filter top box.
There should also be the vac pipe connection for the distributor and the other connection on the plastice servo pipe valve should be blocked off. These should only really cause a light misfire/fast idle though.

What condition is the rubber base carb mounting?
I know Ant recently fitted a weber and had major running issues despite having a new rubber carb mount.
Turned out that, dispite being new, the rubber carb mount was slightly 'too large' and allowed air to leak into the inlet manifold and weaken off the mixture.

Whilst the engine is running, spray some WD40 around the base of the carb.inlet manifold and listen for engine note change. If the WD40 finds a leak and enters the cylinder, it will get burnt and the engine note will change.

I have the same problem, the only thing I have found is if I pull the choke at junctions it doesn't stall.

Any ideas anybody?

i had a similar problem for ages i tried pretty much everything. In the end it was just some shit in the float chamber, when you put your foot down it would block up one of the jets and then settle back down and it would start again!! its only the gears keeping it going and when you put your clutch down to stop, it will stall because their will not be enough fuel getting through.

Yes, I do wonder whether it's just sucked some more crap into the new carb from the rusty fuel tank, although the filter looks completely spotless.