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We have a fault in our 1996 VW Golf. Every week to ten days, it will die while driving, or fail to start after mutiple attempts, or fail to keep running after starting.

Then, it can go faultlessly for the next week to 10 days, when it fails again. We have renewed the coil, swapped the distributor, replaced the main relay, had the computer checked over, checked the fuel pressure, checked that there is spark. It is driving our mechanic and us nuts. Any further ideas?

Neal

From the "Ask Jack" archives - 18 September 2008

I have asked our roadservice team to go back through their records of similar problems as well as asking my industry contacts.

They all say the fault needs to be checked when the engine is in a 'no go' condition and are reluctant to offer any advice in light of what has already been done.

The best I can come up with is the fuel pump. There has been the odd case reported where the symptoms are similar to other VW Golf's.

One way to confirm this would be to fit a fuel pressure gauge into the line and wait for the engine to fault. You would immediately be able to check the line pressure which may confirm a pump fault or not.

You need to discuss this with your mechanic.

Maybe somebody reading this has experienced a similiar problem and they will let me know.