My continuing fuel supply saga

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kdawg89

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I think the injectors ground is the front left plenum chamber which is below the cowling where the wiper arms come through.


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dgoldsmith

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'06 Jetta sedan, "stick," with in-dash 6-CD changer, Sat., & AUX jack in glovebox that I'm no longer trying to figure out how to use, thanks to slamhouse! :-)))
kdawg89 said:
Is it hard to start or does it start well but randomly stall/lose power?
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The latter (occasionally, esp. after a "running stop" stall, e.g., at a stop sign it stalls immediately after starting, but it actually fully starts: it's not like a low battery or bad starter or alternator--which test fine--where it struggles to actually start).

How did your engine bay become immersed in fur?
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Unbeknownst to me, a very very large, very very furry cat--methinks a https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Forest_cat--
forced its way into my engine bay through a crack between my belly pan and my passenger-front wheel-well guard, and then, evidently, couldn't extricate itself. B/c I didn't know it was there, I drove about 80 miles and then left my car unused/unexamined for a full day; then I took it on a local errand, and when I pulled into my destination's parking lot, before I could park, it stalled; it would start, but then immediately stall again. When I opened the hood, fur everywhere; shining a light around, I found the corpse of the cat near and below the serpentine belt (which I had to replace b/c it had been partially stripped of one of its ridges). My car has not run consistently properly since.
 
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dgoldsmith

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Excellent, thank you very much!
 
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kdawg89

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That is nuts, I am struggling to call it a coincidence but I can’t think of anyway that the cat could cause this stalling issue. Did the cat corpse get wedged in the serp drive system? I guess if something became sufficiently wedges against the crank it could stall the engine at low speeds. Even if it did though I don’t see how that would cause collateral damage, the crank sensor isn’t down there on the BRM so that’s not it.


Plus the BRM runs fine without a crank sensor (engine speed sensor) input, it will take longer to start and the tachometer won’t work but it works out how to run well based on cam sensor readings.


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dgoldsmith

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kdawg89 said:
That is nuts, I am struggling to call it a coincidence but I can’t think of anyway that the cat could cause this stalling issue. Did the cat corpse get wedged in the serp drive system? I guess if something became sufficiently wedges against the crank it could stall the engine at low speeds. Even if it did though I don’t see how that would cause collateral damage, the crank sensor isn’t down there on the BRM so that’s not it.
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I don't recall precisely how the cat was lodged in there, plus I wasn't paying that much attention to that, as I was trying to get it out of there as fast as possible in case it was still alive. All I know/remember is that there was fur everywhere, including in the alternator (I believe I got all the fur out of there, but then I recently plucked another tuft from it, and of course I can't easily see all of the bottom or insides of it, so really, who knows.)
 
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dgoldsmith

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'06 Jetta sedan, "stick," with in-dash 6-CD changer, Sat., & AUX jack in glovebox that I'm no longer trying to figure out how to use, thanks to slamhouse! :-)))
kdawg89 said:
Plus the BRM runs fine without a crank sensor (engine speed sensor) input, it will take longer to start and the tachometer won’t work but it works out how to run well based on cam sensor readings.

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Good to know: my tach appears to work fine (although--another "data point"--it "wiggles" when the car "misses"/"stalls at speed").
 
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dgoldsmith

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kdawg89 said:
Yeah, so if the ground drops or there is a weak ground the voltage cuts out or drops to an unusable level. For example if your fuel injector circuit loses its ground connection your fuel injectors won’t fire anymore and you will stall, or if the voltage drops you will lose power/stall.
I think this is all of them, I know some of those descriptions aren’t great but it’s the best I’ve found so far. I believe right/left is as if you were sitting in the driver seat.
1. engine compartment, top of right front chassis member, underneath headlight
2. passenger compartment, base of A-pillar, behind trim
3. connection at right end of cylinder head
4. battery to chassis, under engine hood, near battery
5.right side of trunk, on inner wheel housing, behind trim
6. left side trunk on C-pillar, behind trim
7. left side trunk,on inner wheel housing, behind trim
8.engine/transmission ground, on top of left front chassis member
9.in plenum chamber, next to right strut tower
10.engine compartment, on top of left front chassis member
11.in plenum chamber, next to left strut tower
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What about where the wiper fluid hose is bracketed to the hood: there seems to be some wiring co-guided with that, and I noticed that one of the retaining bracket nuts was completely off--but not lost, thank goodness--and the other was a little loose, so if that's a ground point, that could have definitely been intermittently interrupted; anyway, I put the off one back on and tightened the other, and so far, I've driven about five miles--with lots of stops--without a stall. So, maybe a fix (but I've had long-lasting "false positives" before with this problem, so I won't be confident for about a month; in the meantime, I'll check all the other ground locations you listed: maybe that'll fix some of my other electrical problems!)
 
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dgoldsmith

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BTW: I found the above by finding the stray nut when I was trying to get off the part that the wiper posts come through (the cowling?); in that (unsuccessful) process, I removed the part pictured here:



Which goes in the space under the cowling where pictured, but I don't remember nor can I figure out the proper orientation: help, please! Thanks!
 
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kdawg89

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I am not sure what that is. But it is very important to get all of that back together properly, the ECU (engine control unit) is under that cowling as well and if it can get wet now that is a problem. I suspect that piece is maybe to divert water from soaking the ECU. I would avoid driving in the rain/car wash until you can figure that out. Maybe google some videos of remove ECU from MKV Volkswagen. Should show how to take all of that stuff off.


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dgoldsmith

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'06 Jetta sedan, "stick," with in-dash 6-CD changer, Sat., & AUX jack in glovebox that I'm no longer trying to figure out how to use, thanks to slamhouse! :-)))
kdawg89 said:
I am not sure what that is. But it is very important to get all of that back together properly, the ECU (engine control unit) is under that cowling as well and if it can get wet now that is a problem. I suspect that piece is maybe to divert water from soaking the ECU. I would avoid driving in the rain/car wash until you can figure that out. Maybe google some videos of remove ECU from MKV Volkswagen. Should show how to take all of that stuff off.
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Interesting: the reason I took it out was, even just lifting the cowling in place, I could see it was wet down there, and there turned out to be a wet ball of fur--I'm supposing the only way I'd find all of them would be to take everything out of the engine bay, piece-by-piece--as well as wet leaves and other decaying debris: would a wet ECU cause my symptoms?
 
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kdawg89

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Wet ECU could cause a multitude of issues. If you get water in the connectors you can short them out. I’m going to guess getting the ECU and it’s connectors wet could definitely cause the car to stall although technically I don’t know for sure.


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dgoldsmith

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Well, it rained, and my car died (waiting at a stop light within a mile of my home); typing this in while waiting for a tow to the dealer. :-( The good news: I had just stopped in there (to find out how to put that part back) and noticed that they're offering six-mo.-same-as-cash; the bad news: my income this year will only be about $11,000, so I doubt I'll qualify. Wish me luck.
 
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