Max Muller

Hello all, I am glad to say that I have worked so little on my car since buying it in 97 that I have not needed this forum until now...gulp.

What have I done? Well diagnosing a hard start issue, I went to the common issue of the starter switch on the back. Did the usual, tear the dash out, pop the relay out of the way and get the switch out. Looks good, but its dark and I have a headlamp on (that's the way I roll sometimes) and I put it aside and decide to tackle it in the light tomorrow. Believe it of not, the pollen count today is over 8000 in Winder, GA. No shyt, look it up, it actually looks like, fog/smoke swirling around, and to say the least, my eyeballs are killing me haha. Ok, looking at the switch, playing around trying to put the new one in, I notice a small metal chunk laying on the floor. Where did that come from? Upon inspection, I cannot see it, but I can feel that it is the tip that is rounded inside the metal locking mechanism. Suck sauce all in my face! Now I need one of these

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Standard-Mot...e81c69&vxp=mtr

Unless anyone has an extra laying around that I can buy thru paypal? Maybe its time to call force five...idk, figured I would intro myself to the community and see where everyone else buys and welcome any feedback.

My car? Replaced the tranny @ 150k, injectors at 155k and besides tune ups and a leaky power steering high pressure line, this thing has been a tank! (i.e. unstoppable)

Max Muller

Alright, put everything back together using the broken piece of metal inserted into the new ignition switch, old one was fine, but since I was there...

Only problems left to trouble shoot are these. Cruise control does not work. When I was under the dash I noticed the two wire brake sensor was off, so I plugged that back in, but still not working. I went down the road, tried to maintain a speed, and you could tell it would give it an effort, but light stumble and it was over.

Could this be linked to my hard starting? I have to turn the car over for 10 seconds and actually pump the pedal like it has a carburetor before it will start. It then fires up with a roar, white puff of smoke and idles like a champ and runs great after that. I went around the engine and sprayed starter fluid looking for air leaks, nothing. I replaced some rotted looking vacuum lines, and checked that the blue, green and brown lines are connected properly (after spraying the MAF sensor and cleaning the air filter) I just don't know what is ailing my car, I like to be proactive about maintenance...

I do not have a vag com, but I am open to suggestions. I tried searching the forum for ideas and came up with the EGRV delete, but I would rather not if I can help it.

Please feel free to Chime in with ideas, two minds are better than one lol.

Max Muller

So I took off the plenum last night to do the "phone cord fix" except I used speaker wire. I actually did a search, but the link that refrenced the trick didn't work. After reading a few threads, I could put together the simplicity of it, or so I think. I used speaker wire and window rubber gasket sealer and it was a tight fit! Replaced vacuum line all over the place, looked and found a hard plastic line split on the drivers side head, it had two valves inside and ran to the front of the head and then branched off to the cruise control I think. I gorilla glued it and threw a hose clamp over it for good measure. Plenum seemed to seal up better, almost started right up, but once it did not, I had to do the 10 second hard start yet again. Cruise control still does not work.

I am getting a hard knocking sound on the passenger side head, right before it fires up and as soon as she starts to run, it goes away. Its almost like three or four distinctive hard raps every time I start up.