running problems please help

[langersG40]

Can anybody help, my car i dont thing is run 100% the car idles way above 1000rpm, it cuts out in and out starts fine again tho. also the temp is VERY slow in coming up to working temp!!! and it also smells VERY badly of fuel

any help  id be most gratful

cheers

Langers

[hayesey]

all sound like over fuelling problems.  It could be a lot of things really, have a read of the engine diagnostics thread inside the FAQ section.

[langersG40]

yes looked in there last night, interesting read, tried taken the blue plug off interesting the revs did drop slightly not a lot, is this bad news?? what does the blue plug do???

ttfn

Langers

[G40supercharged]

Temperature gauge should sit at 90 degrees in normal driving, but the gauges often read wrong. The black temperature sender runs the gauge. (Blue one next to it measure engine temperature for the ECU.) I have had to replace both the temperature sender and the gauge itself on one car. It may also be that your thermostat is stuck open or even missing. (The bolts on the thermostat housing seize up and the threads easily strip - use plently of WD40 if you need to take it apart.) If thermostat is dodgy I would expect the temperature to sit around 70 and only creep past 90 in traffic. A good indication of the true temperature is to run the heater; it should give a good blast of hot air on fully warm. Another test is to wait for the fan to start up; this indicates the temperature is around 100 degrees and shows how accurate the gauge reading is.

Disconnecting the blue sender while the engine is running tells the ECU to go into service set mode. This will let you set the timing accurately and adjust the idle screw on the throttle body to set base idle speed. If you do this with the blue temperature sender connected the ECU is constantly fighting your adjustments as it controls idle speed by adjusting the ignition timing. Do not start car with blue sender already disconnected as the ECU sees this as a faulty sender.

Check rotor arm and internals of distributer cap look OK. It may also be worth a new set of ignition leads. The correct platinum spark plugs are worth using; they are very expensive (don't go to VW for them!) but last for 30K miles + .