I'm moving, please help!

[ryu]

I've been living in Japan and my 91 tsi had been sitting for about two years without being fired up. I'm back in the states but I'm only staying for about another week till I go to Hawaii and I am trying to get my car running so I can sell it.

My parents will not let me keep this car here while I'm in Hawaii so I need to get rid of it immediately but I can't get it running right.

Its a 91 TSI AWD w/79k miles.

Before firing up the car I changed the plugs, battery and put some oil in the cylinders before cranking it up. I removed the MBC. Before I left for Japan I put in fuel stabiliser, changed the motor/tranny oil. Also installed new alternator so there must be only a few hundred miles on it. Plug wires have a few hundred miles on them and the fuel filter was changed few thousand miles ago.

So I fire it up. The car runs and sounds like it used to and nothing sounds weird but it doesnt stay on. After it fires up, it dies in around 4-5 seconds. If I start it again, it runs fine but dies in a few seconds. It seems like everything is fine but it doesn't stay on. I've tried putting the MBC back on but it does the same thing. I tried switching the hoses on the MBC but its exactly the same.

The does stay on if I keep the starter on. But I only did that once as I dont want to burn out the starter. I kept starting it over and over after it died thinking maybe I need to burn out the crap in my cylinders or something but nothing changed. Even if I rev it up a little it dies out regardless, after a 4-5 seconds.

I only have a couple days to figure it out and/or fix the problem. I need to have this car on the market on Monday or Tuesday and sell it by the end of next week regardless of if its fixed or not. I know I'll take a HUGE hit on price if the car cannot be driven and that would really suck.

I'm just hoping its a easy fix because I'm not mechanically inclined and because I'm still a newbie I'm extremely inefficient with my time and take forever to do one thing.

Can somebody help me? Advice? Anything???

 

[knochgoon24]

Try some new fuel. Also, clean off your plugs and make sure they are gapped right.

 

[ryu]

Try some new fuel. Also, clean off your plugs and make sure they are gapped right.

Well I just installed new plug and were in spec so I dont think that could be the problem.

Could it really be the gas? I did put the stabiliser in. Are these symptoms of bad gas?

 

[DougR]

Its the gas bro, Best way to remove All of the old fuel is to pop the FP covers (Both sides) under the back seat and syphon it out. I ended up doing this to my 2G during IKE to get fuel for my generator.
Altho Your car is a 91 and the covers are probly rusty as H*ll. So becarefull.
Once you get fresh fuel in. pour in some injector cleaner, Or top off the tank with 2 gallons of E-85.


Edit, O hey if you have a FP rewire. you can pop the line from your fuel rail and run a 12v hot to the relays trigger wire to turn the pump on. So that it stays on and just doesnt prime the system.

 

[ryu]

Okay, I'll give it a try tomorrow and report back.

 

[jdodds]

a 1g has a drain on the fuel tank. Im not sure about your car but my friend has a drain on her 90gsx. Its toward the rear of the tank on the drivers side. I think its a 24mm bolt. Undo that and let it drain into a container. The gutter is not a container.

 

[steve]

Check to see if the fuel pump is turning off. You can try grounding the pin from the ECU that activated the pump to see if it's an ECU problem or you can turn the pump on via the fuel pump check connector and if the car stays running then you know that it's somewhere in the fuel pump drive circuit and try grounding the pin as above.