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Sat May 03, 2008 7:19 am

Hello I am need help with problem. My Rabbit will run for drive for about 10 miles or so then stall out sounds like starving for fuel. When I try to start turns over but will not run. I can here the fuel pump priming when I turn the key. I have replaced the fuel filter in the engine bay. If I set for a few minutes it will start and run a bit. I was thinking might be over heating, noticed last time did it cooling fan came on. Is there a sensor that shuts down fuel if to hot. The temp reads about midway on the dash gauge the on the gauge pod dose not work.

Sat May 03, 2008 7:04 pm

I was having a similar problem which was kicked off by a rusting fuel tank. Does the pump seem louder than normal? Mine ran good until it was warmed up then the max that I could get the rpm's to kept dropping until the car would do nothing but idle. When I changed the pump (after a million other tries) it ran like new and the pump was no longer audible from inside the car.

Sun May 04, 2008 5:33 am

The pump does not seam any louder than normal I have only had the rabbit a few months and have put about 300 miles on it.

Tue May 06, 2008 6:30 pm

Hello,

All is now well it was the fuel pump. Thank you for all the ideas.

Tue May 06, 2008 6:30 pm

When you changed the fuel filter was there any rust coming out of the intake side of the filter? If so or if you can't remember or didn't look you may want to check out the tank which can be done by taking out the 2 screws holding down the bottom of the rear seat. Under it you will find a round cover being held down by 3 screws, under which lies the fuel gauge sender which can be remover by turning it about a 1/6 of a turn counter clockwise. Now if your car is an 83 it should have a small filter in the tank directly below that access port which can be removed by hooking something inside the hole in the top of that filter and pulling directly upwards on it. With mine, the entire housing which holds that filter was clogged with rust, if it is for you as well, you will have to get a new tank. One way to tell whether it is just contaminates collected over time from dirty fuel or an actual rust problem is shine a light into the tank and look for a rusting interior. You can also carefully lower a magnet into the tank and see what you can fish out of that housing. If there is no rust consider yourself lucky as it can cause problems with the rest of the fuel injection system. If there is, a quick tank change (cost me $180 cdn and 4 hours of work), a flush of the lines, a new filter, and possibly a new pump and your in business. It may be something else but this sounds quite suspicious, these cars do not like to sit for long on an empty tank and seeing as you sound like you just bought it this could very well have been the case. Did the previous owner have any list of recent work done on the car, it may be helpful in eliminating the possible problems by knowing what was last done on the car.

Here is a good place for reference material and such on these cars.
hxxp://www.cabby-info.com/Fuel_System.htm
x's to t's of course

There is also a good fuel pressure test procedure and info on how to construct your own pressure tester which can save you allot of money as they are super expensive to buy from automotive shops. All the parts can be found at an auto wrecker (essentially just the original fuel line and fittings from a scrapped VW) except for the actual pressure gauge and valve system which can be picked up at an auto supply store.

Tonnes more info available if you need help, I've got some karma to repay for all the swearing and wrench throwing from my recent car issues.

Tue May 06, 2008 6:33 pm

Ok, that was weird we both posted at the same time on that one.
Glad to hear that things are working for you!

Fri May 09, 2008 12:20 pm

Yes funny both posted at same time, unfortantly my joy of fixing was a littel early the next day had similar problem, being at wits end took to local VW shop they give it full work over found the fuel pump relay to be bad. Simple fix in end but now know it will be reliable.