Hey All, I am in deep trouble here; I have a 1992 TSi 5spd AWD that is being very troublesome. I have to get this car on the road immediately, and am currently stumped with what to do about my problem.

First of, pertainent mods; hacked MAF (Cut Can), 3" Exhaust, Rewired Pump, blah blah blah.

The Problem:
The other day I jumped in my car, started it up, and lo and behold the damn thing quit running on me! I have had starting problems before, all due to loose wiring in my fuel pump rewire job. Thinking that it was just a repeat, I cracked the hatch and checked the connections - all fine. The car is still being very picky, so I go and buy a new relay and redo some of my wiring, still no go.

What is happening is that the car will start once in a while (very easily, idling fine, everything looks good) - running for 5 to 30 seconds, then it will just die. If I try and restart it, it may or may not run again, but if it does start - it dies after only a few seconds. Then the car will not run for a long time - as I have to let it sit and then if I try starting it, it may or may not run.

I am almost positive that the fuel system is OK. I wired the pump directly to my battery for a quick test, and I can hear it run (the pump), but it still may or may not start after that, and idle for a few seconds.

Can anyone think of anything? I had not done a thing to the car, and it was working perfectly up until one day it deceided to strand me.

Could the fuel line/filter/injectors be hardcore clogged? I am no mechanic by any means, but I am out of ideas. I tried to quickly check and firm up the wiring to my alternator and distributor if that means anything. And just in case, the car is parked on an angle in my driveway, if that makes a difference. There are no noticable fuel leaks/spills/odours.

The only other info that may help is that last time my wiring came loose (month ago), and I fixed it, the car would miss a bit (my dad claims dirty injectors), but that went away.

Any help would greatly be apreciated.
Thanks!

I talked over my situation with a friend of mine, and he seems to think that my fuel filter could really be clogged. I didnt think that it could get bad this fast (running perfectly one day, not the next). But it would explain the how the car will start after it has been left for a while, when the filter is full, then it will burn that gas and die. Then it must be left alone again... thoughts?

Run a volt meter on your fuel pump rewire. If you're not getting a solid 12 volts, redo it.

I am sure the wiring is fine, I even put it back to stock just in case... still no fixie ;-(...

Well, I had that particular situation, but me, it ends up to be the ECU(capacitor leak). Sometimes, there was maybe a loose connection on the printed circuit board, and there was no power going to the ECU, and it wouldn't start. If it's that, just look at the turbo gauge, when you put the key ON, you should see if the gauge comes up to the middle, if the gauge is not coming up at all, that means no power to the ECU, and car will not start.

Jonathan

Could be an intermittently bad CAS. If the ECU can't see the crank/cam position it won't run the engine. But it's more likely an ECU problem unless the capacitors have been changed recently.

I am pretty sure it is not an ECU problem. The car will run for 5-50 seconds at a time. And the factory boost gauge climbs when the key is on.
Its such a wierd problem, car starts sometimes, then dies right away. I am in the process of changing the fuel filter and really hope that it fixes it, but I have my doubts. How can the car run perfectly the day before, and then screw up all of this sudden (I mean if it was a clogged filter. Pumps fine (I think!).... eeerrrggggg

First thing you should do is to check for spark. Pull off the wires to the coil packs and crank , you'll see it arc to the closest bolt . If you dont see a spark then its most likely tha cas or the ecu, but if there is a spark look at fuel or MAF.

ecu can be weird, don't rule it out. for me it died very suddenly, without any problems beforehand. Then it started again for a few seconds and died again, and never started since. You never know till you try it I guess... But your problem sounds electrical to me, just like mine...