Running problems,cutting out wont start 95' Golf VR6

[1995VR6AUSTRALIA 0]

I've recently bought a VR6 Golf,for the first few months its been running fine,but then started to develop an intermittant problem.It has just died on me a few times times now,usually in 1st of second gear,the whole car shudders like crazy then dies,it seems as if its not getting fuel.but if you leave it 5 mins it starts fine.Now it has began to not start at all,well it fires up then dies immediatley.The fuel pump is quite noisey,I have a replacement I'm just about to fit,is there anything else to look for ??? My mate had a quick look before and reckond he could smell raw fuel coming from exhaust ??? but couldnt find any source to the problem,the car started fine for the next month or so but is now playing up again ?

[ip 0]

Two things to check:

1. Ignition switch can fail on these cars at exactly this sort of age. Will cause start-then-stall issues and sometimes intermittent cutting out. Really easy to test. Buy new switch (oem, dead cheap, UK was £7, does not include key barrel, is just the electrical switch behind), remove steering column plastics and then pull plug out of back of current ignition switch. Put plug into new ignition switch. Insert key into ignition and turn (to release steering lock and fool immob if you have one). Now, using screwdriver, turn barrel of new ignition switch and see what happens.

Smell of petrol could simply be a product of flooding due to poor starting or engines attempts to keep turning over as it stalled.

2. Lambda sensor. This will cause intermittent stalling if really broken. It will also set the fuel mixture all wrong resulting in a smell of unburnt fuel from the exhaust. Get a Vag-Com on it to read possible fault codes. In UK vag com adapters are dead cheap off ebay and are frankly essential when running older VWs.

Cheers, ip

[Devildub_06 0]

I'd be tempted to start with some basic diagnostics... first of all, make sure all your connections to the coilpack are sound and free of moisture. Check your leads, and whip your plugs out, turn the engine over for several seconds to clear unburnt fuel.

Check the air piping back from your box to your MAF, and from your MAF back, it may be that you have a split in the tubing after the MAF and as such the engine draws in air that the MAF can't account for, and the ECU then fuels up to safeguard the engine. Have a pick and a prod at your lambda wiring and check for breaks and degredation. And if you can get hold of VAGcom, run that to fault find (As per above).

[1995VR6AUSTRALIA 0]

Cool,I found a small hole in the tubing after the MAF,I managed to cover it with my thumb and start the car to get me home, I repaired it and have ordered a new hose,I took it into garage and the guy ran a diagnostic but couldnt replicate the problem,it showed a fault on the "crank angle sensor" so I had this replaced ??? I'll check out e-bay for vag-com adapter as I dont trust these spawn of convict mechanics as far as I could throw a kangaroo ! Cheers for the help !