Little brother is having issues with our autocross car. 2002 VW GTI 1.8T.
Ambient temp 105 (+/-). Coolant temp 195 (+/-). Pavement temperature easily 130+.
Car starts and runs fine when the ambient is lower (in the mornings and at night), but as temperature rises, it stalls/dies when the throttle is closed. In or out of gear. Sometimes when leaving a stoplight. Starts back up easily enough. Happens more often in lower-speed driving. He said it died about 20 times (
) on his way home from town today (about an 80-minute drive, half of which is city driving).
I suspect vapor lock, but I don't know much about modern fuel systems.
Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
He said "its a VW, of course the CEL is on".
Random Misfire, Random Misfire in 1/2/3/4, Lean Condition Bank 1, Idle Airflow Too High. He's had those for months though, and this issue has just started in the last ten days.
Sounds like vacuum leak? Really, though, running with mis fire codes a sure way to kill the catalytic converter. Possible MAF problem as well. If you don't already have one get a Bentley manual and follow the diagnosis for the codes.
Those cars are really bad on coil packs. I've been through at least a dozen in 7 years and 195k. I'm with vwcorvette as well, sounds like he's got a vacum leak as well.
He replaced the coil packs about 10k ago. Might be time for another set.
Vaccum leak as in a loose line somewhere?
He is (and I am) puzzling why it doesn't seem to have trouble when the ambient temperature is lower.
Driving the car with all of those problems, I'm not surprised.
VWCorvette is correct. Sounds like a vacuum leak. Cars of that age are having more of these problems when the hoses start to crack and deteriorate. I would start checking all the rubber hoses for cracks and holes.
