Volkswagen Cabrio: Need contact with upper skill level Volkswagen…

A little background. Customer picked up car from auction, had a mechanic friend with him and scanned MAF/Vacuum Leaks/Misfire/overheat codes. Fuel pressure is at 38lbs at idle, and rises to 43 when I disconnect the vac line at intake plenum. Cleaned MAF out good, replaced all vac hoses and lines, replaced plugs, cap/rotor, wires checked out good. Had big coolant leak tripping overheat light, replaced sensor flange on tranny end of engine, no overheat, no leaks. Idled rough/no power. After work done idles smooth as can be, still no power. MAF and vac leak codes eliminated. Only codes thrown now are misfires on 1/3/4. The issue right now is that whether you manipulate throttle by hand or pedal, in or out of gear, the engine starts missing and wants to stall at 2400 rpm, and if you back off, it will pick the smooth idle right back up. If possible provide me with locations of timing marks and procedure for setting, as I have no manuals on this model.

Thanx for the info. At work right now. Have a couple of other road call jobs have to finish tomorrow morning before I head out to my shop at the edge of town. I'll check marks and get back asap. Also was informed by a local tech that if the bushings on the distributor shaft are worn, the distributor can "walk" and timing gets off, any truth?

Ok, think I nailed it down. Found some diagrams based on your info and followed procedure for checking timing. No matter how many times you turn the crank 180/360 etc, and line up marks on crank pulley and arrow on lower cover, the cam timing mark never lines up. When I go to tdc #1 on compression stroke, crank lines up but cam is at 12:00 (two teeth off to right), rather than at the arrow which is at about 11:30. Then I went to distributor, rotor looks like it's off one gear tooth to the right of "notch", which would make sense based on how far cam is off to right of mark. However, I think the issue is the tensioner. You can move it back and forth about a quarter of an inch, and its very easy to compress the stroke on the tensioner with two fingers, with no push-back to speak of. I think the belt jumped two teeth on the cam. Is this a hydraulic, or gas loaded cylinder that provides tension? And about how long to change?

Hopefully I can get to it this afternoon. Correct me if I'm wrong, but since I'm going to release tension on the belt to replace the tensioner, I can move the cam counterclockwise two teeth before I release the new tensioner load on the belt and that should also bring the rotor back to where it should be just to the left of the notch? At that point everything should be in time correct? And yes I do hear resonance in the intake not so much when at idle but when you accelerate. Also, considering the timing being off and the firing order, is that the reason it gave me codes of 1/3/4 misfires? Thanx again.

Getting some conflicting info on tensioner replacement. Am I going to have to remove crank pulley and bottom cover to do the job? It looks on diagrams like the lower tensioner mounting bolt is behind the crank pulley.

Hell of a time yesterday boss. Went out after work and went for a full timing adjustment from beginning. Was able to loosen the torx on the idler pulley and take tension off the belt enough to move cam sprocket two teeth counterclockwise so cam timing marks meet right between O - T and indicator arrow on rear cover, while at all times keeping crank marks aligned. Consequently, there is enough tension available from the thermo-tensioner to keep belt tight once the idler is adjusted right. Here's where it got ugly. No matter how perfect the timing marks on both cam and crank matched up, the rotor was off about 3/4 of an inch to right of notch, the notch being at 12:00 on distributor housing under dust cover when looking straight down on it originally. First, I removed the distributor hold down bracket and the distributor was frozen to the block, so after a little PB and some channel locks to the distributor, I was able to free it and turn it in both directions. Tried turning the distributor so the rotor was just to left of notch, but it started and idled crappier and wouldn't accelerate. Wouldn't the best thing to do be to move notch back to original position at 12:00 and try to lift the distributor straight up and turn shaft on gear tooth to left? Getting stuck on this one man.

Also found the kit to retro-fit the belt tensioner back to an adjustable idler pulley and get rid of the thermo tensioner. The set-up is OEM on 93-97 Jetta 2.0s.

Is this distributor crankshaft or camshaft driven? Whenever I move the cam sprocket either way the rotor doesn't move so I assume it's crank driven. Either way, when the lower and upper timing marks on the crank and cam are on the indicator arrows perfectly, the rotor is off to right of distributor notch about 3/4 inch still, again the notch being at 12:00 when looking down at it. Looking at it over and over again, the only way to get the rotor and distributor set right is to lift it out of the block and turn shaft one tooth counterclockwise and reset it in the block. It looks like just one tooth off, maybe two but I doubt it. Concur?

Duh, I'm so *ing stupid! As soon as you said intermediate shaft, I knew what was going on. When I was loosening the tensioner and slipping the belt off the cam sprocket to mate the marks, the crank and intermediate stayed still. When I moved the cam sprocket two teeth to correct it's position, I didn't compensate by resetting the rotor to #1. So needless to say as the belt is off when I replace the tensioner today, I will line up crank and cam marks, put tension on belt using my spanner, lift and set the distributor to #1 at the block and see what happens. I do find it easier to set everything on the sprocket end then lift and set these type distributors as I have a hell of a lot of experience on chevy trucks with 350s that have the distributor way back on the rear of the engine damn near under the dash.

Well friend, I removed the old tensioner and retro-fitted the old style pulley, perfect fit and tension. So while I had the belt off, I lined up all timing marks on crank, cam, and lined up rotor by turning the intermediate drive sprocket per your method. I always use 3" needle nose vise-grips to hold the belt on the crank and cam sprockets while setting the tensioner, and did so this time as usual. Once I verified timing marks I tensioned the belt, turned the crank 360 deg twice and back to the timing mark to verify everything stayed. All timing marks and rotor lined up picture perfect, got in to start the vehicle. Cranks, gets fuel, but sputters and won't hold an idle higher than 400-500. Just enough time to get out and bump the distributor both ways before it dies. Moving the dist back and forth minutely makes no noticeable difference. And even after the no-start and sputtering, I can bring all timing marks back in line perfectly. Going to hit some you tubes to see if I'm missing anything. I've done timing belts on a couple of Jettas, and Golfs with 1.8s and 2.0s without any problems before and this one is pissing me off! Going to pull coil wire today and use spark tester to see what I get. If you can think of anything I missed please chime in, I have my lap-top with me today. Thanks again.

One thing I have consciously noticed is that no matter how perfect the timing mark alignment is between the crank, cam, and rotor, I have never seen the master timing marks on the flywheel come into the access holes. Is it possible for the crankshaft serpentine belt pulley with the timing mark to be off? The first thing I am going to do today is turn the crank until the timing marks on the flywheel are aligned with the pointer in the flywheel access window, make sure the #1 piston is tdc and set my cam and rotor that way.

Well guess what. I usually have an extra set of hands to help, but I've been on this one solo. I did find that problem I believe. The owner who lives about 80 miles away, wanted to see where I was yesterday and brought his "own mechanic" to "help out". He turned out to be more of a hindrance. I filled him in on what was done so far and had him turn the crank while I looked for marks on the flywheel end. Before we did that though, we lined up existing marks as they were, and checked #1 for tdc, and found it was on the down stroke. When he was turning the crank a timing mark finally came into the rectangular of the two access holes that looks like this -o-. We moved the crank back and forth slightly and I watched the dowel I had in the number one cylinder, when the timing mark -o- was lined up with the bottom edge of the rectangular hole, the #1 was at absolute TDC. Then we looked at the damper pulley mark and it was at about 10:00, so either the damper was reinstalled wrong (seen them put on before without woodruff key) when the last owner changed the timing belt. So needless to say, I ignored the damper mark from that point on. Once we got timing marks aligned using the flywheel mark as the tdc indicator, it started right up. However the initial problem still exists, where you can run the rpms up to 2400 then she craps out. I have read a lot of VW threads that say the coils on these were notorious for failing and losing power in that rpm range. The one on the car looks very new, and I know that doesn't matter, as I receive parts here at my shop at the postal fleet garage every week that are DOAs. Going to go out today and fire it up and bring it to 2400 where she starts to sputter and spray the coil and see if I get any response. Sorry it's taking so long man, but I usually don't run into issues I can't research and resolve, but with no help doing timing, it's a little difficult.

Got everything in the timing system replaced. Timing marks are perfect now. No codes, but still peters out at 4200. Read some threads about throttle body alignment after low power or battery disconnect. Is this true and can it be done with my Solus Pro from our shop?

To eliminate an questions about the chain of timing, I replaced all pulleys and sprockets, timing belt and tensioner. Found almost new sprockets at salvage and crank pulley is brand new. ALL timing marks line up PERFECTLY now and stay there. Installed new battery. As of right now no existing codes. I brought my Solus Pro home from the shop Friday and was going to get some accurate readouts, but I didn't have an S44 Personality Key for VW. If I can't find one today through our Snap-On guy, I'm going to check with our contract shops around town and try to borrow one, so I can do a proper alignment. The other thing I started thinking about I ran into in the past is a clogged or burned out cat. Not much exhaust from the pipe for my comfort. If I can't get my hands on a S44, I will give your readapt procedure a try to see if it makes any difference.

Ok, went out and tried the "readapt" per your instructions, no luck. You can run this thing below the 3200 rpm threshold all day long and it won't throw a code, the second you pass that threshold, you get misfire codes now, always different 1/3, 1/4 whatever, never #2. No more cam sensor codes with timing correction and another distributor. Fuel pressure still strong at 38/43. As you asked, the long term fuel trim is 0.8, and the "loop" stays open, never closes, even at idle. Didn't have time to drop cat today, will try tomorrow to see if makes diff.

I just found the ONLY S44 key and adapter (VAG-COM for Solus) in Colorado from a Snap On truck sitting on the side of the road. Going to take my Solus Pro home tomorrow and run a good scan with it before do anything else. Thanks.

Went out and scanned yesterday afternoon still showed no codes, but still acting up. Bolts on cat were rusted, so I had to wait to cut them off. So I remembered an incident about 20 years ago when my 91 jeep went into limp mode with no warning, I pulled the pre-cat O2 sensor off and was able to drive the vehicle home. Knew I was onto something, so I pulled the pre-cat sensor off the downpipe and started it up. Damn thing pegged the red line the first time I floored it, smooth as can be, but of course loud as hell. Since we are no longer under emissions testing here in southern Colorado, I went out yesterday and cut the cat bolts and cut the tailpipe behind the cat and took the cat out, set it on end and used a special long chisel I made that attaches to the end of my air hammer for this purpose. Gutted out all the melted masses in the cat and hollowed it out. Reattached cat and O2 sensors and fired it up. Runs like a bat out of hell now. Going to button everything up after work today and give it a final once over. Get back with you to close out later.