Ok, funny story, true story.

You know how sometimes you come to a light and for some reason the traffic is all backed up, only to find out some jackass's car broke down right before the intersection, blocking the only left turning lane controlled by a left turning light, at a already fairly busy and backed up intersection during rush hour.... Well i was that poor sob yesterday.

Ok here's the story, i was waiting at the light, and believe me, it was a long light, 3-4 mins, no joke. And no Todd, I didn't stall it, I had clutch in and foot on brake. Then the car just dies.

Luckly there was a gas station on the other side, so after bout 15 mins, got someone to help me push it to the gas station, oil was really low, there was no coolant and gas was low. So we topped all that up, still didn't start. I mean, it would crank, but wouldn't start up. Now my guess was that the car over heated, but then someone pointed out that, if that were the case, there'd be bunch of smoke and comming outta the hood, which there wasn't. So now I'm guessing it's electrical.

Anybody wanna take a stab at what it could be?

I'm gonna go back today, and hope it's still there (had to abandon her cuz i was late for my 2nd or 3 jobs yesterday )and try to fire her up.

Now keep in mind this isn't the Z, it's a 1989 VW Fox

 

the smoke you see when your car over heats is steam from your coolant. if you had no coolant that would explain why you saw no steam. maybe your car did overheat.

if you had no coolant, and your oil was really low you should try and keep a better eye on them.

 

Did you check for spark
might just be a bad coil/rotor / doistributor whatever that VW has in it :P

Just get a long skinny screwdriver. Remove a spark plug boot insert screwdriver in boot and hold wire close to something metal if you have spark it will go through the wire through the screwdriver then try to jump to the block or whatever metal surface you have it close too, Old spark plug works great also.
If you dont have spark there go back to the coil disconnect the coil wire and do same step as part one. if still no spark more then likely you just have a bad coil or ignition module if it has one :P

If that all checks out check for fuel that all depends on what that thing runs for fuel is it carbed, fuel injection tbi etc. Is the fuel pump mechanical or electric. If electric when you turn the ignion to run position not starting the vehile do you hear the pump prime. There are a million things you could check but start with the simple stuff first.
later
Mike

 

Hope you learned a good lesson from all this.

 

What lesson Matt?

Ok, It's defintely not overheating, cuz i went back there today and yesterday, no luck.

I'm thinking it's the fuel pump, it is not electrical, so I can't hear anything when i turn the key.
That spark test sounds pretty dangerous, I don't know if I can handle that Mike, haha. From what my friend thinks, he saids everything seems to be good and that i'm not getting fuel to the engine. Um I know for a fact it's not carb, dunno what a TPI is, so i'm thining fuel injected.

Anywayz, gonna tow the car tomorrow and get a new fuel pump in there and go from there.

Thx guys.

 

tpi is tuned port injection. so your car is fuel injected. ask jimbo to point you to the direction of some local veedub forums for some help. good luck. check to see if your fuel pump relay is working too.

 

Man there should be a shrader valve(needle valve) somewhere on your return fuel line in the engine bay, take the cap off & try pressing down on the valve & see if fuel comes out after you put the key into ignition, if not then its your fuel pump.

Spark test is easy, just take off one of the plug wires & put it close to something metal, try cranking the engine, you should see a nicer big spark, if not then your ignition module/coil is most likely toast, that car may have an all in one system where the distributor/ignition module/coil is in one, those suck

Matt.

BTW, the lesson is keep the fluids topped up even in a beater.

 

Ahh ok, I see. Got ya. That sounds simple enough, I'll go check it out again today.

Thx guys

 

not all cars have test port, aka schrader valves ..
the lesson is not to keep fluids up on a beater, my beater ran without coolant for a long time and I never changed the oil in it either in the 2 years i had it

the REAL lesson is .. why ditch ur Camaro in the summer for a beater ?

 

Especially a when it's a VW

Joking aside, I recommend finding what is wrong before buying parts. It could save you a lot of money.

 

and you tried to sell it on the board, the lesson is not to buy anything from payam

 

Amen to that, hahaha. Remember that cam Payam, well it's still sitting there, haha.

Well update guys, the VW is up and running, turns out it was the Timing Belt. The reason why i'm ditching the Z for the VW is to save bling for the "project"

Thx guys