1991 Volkswagen Golf Will Run Fine Suddenly Loose Power Engine Skips Beat

1991 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF
300,000 MILES
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my golf will run fine then suddenly i loose power ,it as if the engine skips a beat it happens afer i have driven for while , last week the engine cut out the whne it cooled down it ran fine again.i had the ignition coil replace and now it is acting up again any sugesstions on how to fix this problem .thanks john
Oct 21, 2012 at 7:07 PM
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DRCRANKNWRENCH
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Have the fuel pressure tested.
Oct 21, 2012 at 7:17 PM
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EXOVCDS
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A bad hall sensor in the distributor can cause skipping / hesitation and stalling... with engine
starting again after it has cooled off.

The next time it stalls / does not start, check for spark.

Thomas
Oct 21, 2012 at 8:15 PM
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DRCRANKNWRENCH
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It could also be the camshaft postion sensor or the coil could be going bad.
But in any of these cases exovcds is correct in saying that you should check for spark.
Oct 26, 2012 at 2:37 AM
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EXOVCDS
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1991 does not have a camshaft position sensor... just the Hall Sensor in the Distributor.

Thomas
Oct 26, 2012 at 6:11 PM
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DRCRANKNWRENCH
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I kind of remember how a Hall sensor works as I had a car with a speedometer that used a Hall field to move the needle. It is a coil and magnet type of setup isn't it?
Please let me know as I do not remember and it is bugging me.
Oct 31, 2012 at 10:26 AM
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EXOVCDS
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Sorry about the late reply... haven't been getting all the update notifications...

The Hall sensor in the distributor is a magnet & Transistor pair that is triggered by a rotating metal shutter wheel (4 windows). When the transistor
is turned on, it grounds the wire (middle wire of plug connector) that goes to the ECM. When the ECM "sees" ground on that wire, it triggers the Ignition coil.

The hall sensor in this application is a square wave on/off signal.... VW used either 12 or 5v operating voltages (outer two wires of plug connector).

Google or Youtube can explain better than I. :-)

Thomas
Nov 2, 2012 at 9:08 PM
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DRCRANKNWRENCH
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Thanks for that information. Information is Golden as they say.
Thanks
Dr. C
Nov 2, 2012 at 9:16 PM
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