Stalling trouble

[Satanstoenail]

My car has always stalled occasionally when the idle doesn't kick in, but lately it seems worse. I've been trying to convince my girlfriend to drive the car as I've been driving a new work van, but she's scared of it stalling on a hill, or around a corner because the power steering dies when it happens. I know mk2's are kinda notorious for this, but is there any quick fix for this problem? Or should I just go to the mechanic?

[GermanwithaVdub]

i was told to clean the idle control valve... aka idle stabilisation valve, though i havent bothered because mine isnt too bad and the car isnt being used anyway. ive also read on other forums that this is the most likely fix. other than that i guess it could be a spark problem but i dunno :S

[Jmac]

Hi remove the idle stabilisation valve and soak the thing in shellite for ages and blow it out. Then you have to reset the computer by disconnecting the blue temp sensor rev the engine 3 times passed 3000rpm then refit the sensor and rev again to 3000rpm 3 times. All good. Discard the meatl jacket(if fitted) on the dizzy cap and clean the inside and out of the caps with wd40.This gets rid of any carbon build up which spark loves to track the quickest way to earth.
Cheers

[moto]

Another thing to check is the breather valve (the big round one on the rocker cover). The rubber connection to the metal cover can break, crack, leak giving a rough and temperamental idle.

[joshyd-mk2gti]

i think my breather valve gromet is giving grief too. my idle jumps up and down spontaneously. ISV is pretty clean so it must be the gromet.

[Jmac]

Yes very good this is right as the crankcase is a negative pressure set up. Look also when you are tuning these cars a prerequisite is to pulloff the crankcase breather hose at the rocker cover and blank off the hose., disconnect the blue sensor , rev the thing to 3000rpm 3 times and then adjust your CO content to 2%-2.5% then reconnect the blue sensor, rev the thing up again 3 times and reconnect the crankcase breather. All good. Look just spray around this area and that will tell you if you have a leak. The revs will change. Little Vac pipes at the back of the inlet manifold very common as is a bad earth at the cylinder head. I rewired one for this . I ran an earth straight from the ECU to a known good earth and hey what a difference that made. Very tempremental ecu if not grounded right or has voltage surges.
Cheers

[Golf Loon]

Thanks for sharing that Jimmy, thats gold.

Anyone with a Mk2, print that out and stick it in your car somewhere.

[Golf Loon]

I have also seen the diaphram for the Fuel Pressure Reg breached and fuel shooting up the vacuum hose to the inlet manifold. That makes it hard to tune