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Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:08 pm

My mom is in CA and I'm up here. She said her car won't start, but it will turn over. It's a 1990 5 spd Cabriolet. My brother looked at it and said it doesn't have spark. Any ideas on how to fix it? The battery is good and the starter spins. Unfortunately that's all I know right now but I told her I'd ask.

Thanks!

Thu Oct 23, 2008 3:40 pm

Test for primary voltage at the ignition coil. If there is no voltage, the ignition switch could be faulty (the switch is now a common failure item on these old cars).

Mon Oct 27, 2008 9:53 am

OK, my brother checked the ignition coil and it had voltage. What other options do we have?

Tue Oct 28, 2008 7:36 pm

I have a cabriolet and it would turn over and not start, had power to the coil but no power to the Hall sensor. I ended up replacing the distributor. It could also be a problem with the air flow sensor. There is a cabriolet specific site as well as the vortex that might be helpful, I am only familiar with my 93 cabriolet and my friends 86 vanagon. Good luck.

http://www.cabby-info.com/

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zeroforum?id=152

Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:11 pm

The distributor was the problem. Thanks for your help!