You guys sorted the last one which was a leaky water issue so I thought id ask around again..

As its french its obviously broken again, it broke down a week ago and then twice today when everything appeared fine and I put my foot down in 3rd/4th.

Characterised by immediate loss of power, the engine always seems to be at 3k when i look at it and it just plunges to a stand still from there. Happened on the M1 today :O.

ETA more info: no clunks bangs whistles or shudders from the engine, its there one minute then "off" the next. When it stops if I try to start immediately it just turns on the starter. Wait 2-3 minutes and try again and its fine for days (or in the case of today, about an hour) so totally intermittent. I drove back to nottingham later that evening with no issues. When it first happens there are no warning lights, but by the time it has stopped all the preignition dash lights are on (like when you first put the key in/stall)

I was thinking electrical or in need of a new fuel filter? water and oil are fine and checked religiously.

[Edited on 23/6/09 by cd.thomson]

MAF faulty? It's a common on the gti engine.

would that give generally rough running and inability to idle? I get that anyway as per the usual gti when I first start it from cold, but I've never had issues when driving and all warmed up.

Fuel pump relay would be a prime suspect.

Agreed Fuel pump /Tachymetric relay

Or the dreaded brown plug of death syndrome!

The brown plugs in the engine bay are shit! they are light eh plugs used in modern cars but only on the inside of the car, they are pretty well un weather proof and they rot and cause all sorts of intermittant problems.

As a metter of precation its best to either lop them all off and solder the wires straight together or lop them off and go the scrappy and pinch some weather tight modern engine bay plugs and solder them in.

Ditto - fuel pump relay would be my first port of call on the GTI. I've had 3 instances of this symptom all with the same fault.

cheers everyone.

how would one rectify a fuel pump relay fault, is it in haynes? replace it? now.. to find the thing..

[Edited on 24/6/09 by cd.thomson]

Get a new one from the motorfactors or someone like GSF car parts (Pug main stealer will disembowel your wallet) and replace.

Relay is up under the dash behind a removable panel to the right of the streering column.

The relay controls the fuel pump and IIRC it's also linked to the ECU somehow so probably best to disconnect the battery while replacing.