Right - this is bloody annoying me. Got a 1.6 Driver G reg, just clocked up 150K miles.

BUT it will NOT idle smoothly, never has. I am sure the fueling and mixture are good, plugs always come out the correct colour, MPG would suggest its not over fuelling as well. I bought an 'all singing all dancing' timing light the other day, having convinced myself that the timing was out, and it was, I set it up according to the Haynes manual 18' BTDC with the vacuum disconnected.

It still has a slight misfire, that smoothes out at higher revs but the engine still 'jumps' occasionally.

I have serviced the car regularly i.e the plugs are new and gapped properly. I have checked all over for an air leak in the vacuum lines, have even replaced some of the vacuum pipes and fitted new jubilee clips.

The only things I haven't replaced are the plug leads and coil lead - could it be these (but they look pretty new. I got a FSH history from the woman I bought it from and it seems she had had it serviced no expense spared.
I also haven't replaced the dizzy cap or rotor arm, but again these look pretty good.

The only other thing I think it could be is the coil, its now 20 years old and still on the original coil (I think - it has a green VW sticker on it) or is it the dwell angle? Haynes suggests this should be about 50' but my timing light says its about 25'. But how do you adjust the dwell on a TCI system? Or is the dizzy knackered?

I'm looking forward to the responses.....

cheers

james

lumpy idle on high mileage cars can often be down to one or more cam faces being over worn due to oil starvation, its also a common pinto problem too.

Replace the plug leads to cure the missfire, if you run it in the dark you'll see the sparks jumping. Not a good idea to touch the old ones while its running

I'd favour replacing the coil, dizzy cap+arm and HT leads as a matter of course really. Sounds like you've taken care of/checked everything else.

Have you got a multimeter?

Might be worth checking the resistance readings for the coil windings and HT leads first although a slightly iffy lead can often show OK testing this way, but work poorly in practice.

before doing anything get a compretion tester and check compretion before spending (wasting)any money.
is its ok then all the info you will ever need is on the mk1 golf forum it has how to set the engine up ect.
http://www.vwgolfmk1.org.uk/modules.php?name=Forums

Have you checked the carb mounting ? prone to perishing and causing air leaks . Worth changing the cap, rotor and leads if there is any doubt. Has it still got the Pierburg carb??