2003 GTI Hesitation

[shawnjd]

Hi everyone,

Last year I bought a used '03 GTI knowing that it had a hesitation and stalling problem. With the help of this forum I rebuilt the carb hoping that would help. Unfortunately that did not help at all, so I just lived with it for the last month or so of summer. On the last day of the season, I noticed that the performance improved dramatically when I switched over to the Reserve tank. I must have run 3 or 4 tankfulls of gas through the main tank over the summer, so I can't imagine it was bad gas causing the problems but I don't know. Any Ideas out there? Does the main and reserve tank each have their own fuel filters? Is it actually even to separate tanks? Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[popasodatastie]

Hmmmmm

you might have a clog in the switch from on to res you my want to take it apart and clean it then check you water fuel seperator for gunk. also do you have the grey fuel lines?

 

[shawnjd]

Parasites?

No, I don't have the grey fuel lines and I've checked the separator already. I will take the tank selector switch apart and clean it in a week or two, hopefully that will take care of the problem. Thanks for your help. Also, has anybody heard of parasites in the fuel system? The man I bought it from referred me to a mechanic that had worked on it before, and he said the hesitation was caused by parasites in the fuel. Not sure if he was jerking me around or if this is something that actually happens. He sold me some Diesel fuel treatment and had me use it in a few tankfulls, but the problem never improved. I figured he was full of sh*t, and that's when I decided to rebuild the carb. What does everybody think? Thanks again.

 

[shawnjd]

Still having problems

Any ideas? I did clean out the fuel switch but that didn't help. Also curious as to what other people think of the whole parasite issue. Thanks,
Shawnjd

 

[daverade]

dont jack with cleaning the switch...more times than not you should just replace it.... you cant fully clean it, enough for it to work right!

 

[daverade]

the "parasites" are in the water...never heard of it...is he a scientist or a mechanic...most mechanics i know dont use a microscope good enough to see parasites...but i could be wrong!!! lol

 

[shawnjd]

Exactly what I was thinking, he was probably just messing with me. As far as the fuel selector goes, I will have to look around but I think that I may have actually replaced it rather than just cleaning it. Thanks for your advice,
Shawnjd

 

[daverade]

are your carbs adjusted correctly??? its about the only other thing i could think of that would cause a hesitation!!!

 

[daverade]

previously, when you switched over to reserve and you say that the performance improved dramatically, did it still hesitate???

 

[shawnjd]

I haven't ridden it since last year, but as I recall it did still hesitate but was much better. As far as the carb goes, when I rebuilt it I adjusted it according to the manual, but I have tinkered with it throughout the summer to try and get it to run better. I appreciate your input on this matter, but the hesitation is the least of my problems now. I have another thread going about the problem of it not being able to start while it is in the water. It starts great when on the trailer, but will hardly ever start when there is a load on the engine. I'm really stumpt on this one. I've had it in to the dealership, and they don't have a clue about it, and I've had a thread posted in this forum for over a year and nobody has any suggestions other than compression problems (but that checks out). Maybe I messed something up when I rebuilt the carb? It runs pretty good, I could live with the hesitation but it just will not start with a load on it. Thanks,
Shawnjd