1991 turbo shuts off while driving?

[vwb5t]

So i have a chance to get a 1991 jetta 1.6 turbo diesel 5 speed for under $800 with about 150k miles on it from a guy at work, not sure on the shape of the body i have to go look at it though. im not new to VW's just diesels. problem is the car will drive fine and then just shut off on its own, you pull over wait a few minutes and it starts right up and drives like nothing it wrong until it happens again, its been in the shop and had the fuel pump replaced but it didnt fix the problem. anyone have any ideas? its his nieces car and when she finds her new car either a civic or sentra the jetta is going and i have first dibs cause im the VW guy at work.

[dillenger1]

sounds like the shutoff valve is going.It allows the high pressure side of the pump to pump fuel.

[Op-Ivy]

I agree with Dillenger.

Try bridging the solenoid that he is talking about directly to the battery. Sounds like it might be losing power. I guess check the connection first though!

When it shuts off does it completely die immediately, or does it struggle a bit first?

[theman53]

I had a horrible problem in my old 81 rabbit. I ran some bad fuel in it and it would do the same thing. I went through about 5 or 6 fuel filters and found a black sludge in it every time I changed them until the end. It got less over time, but the black was still there. It would plug the filter off to where it would just power down to a stop and wouldn't start. Leave it sit 5-10 minutes and it would go again for 10-30 minutes, but if you put another filter on it might go for a day or 2 before doing it again. I would also agree with those who have already said the electrical problem, but I was giving you another angle if that didn't pan out.

[vwb5t]

something that i forgot about the car has new fuel lines and is running off of B100 biodiesel, could that be causing a problem cause its cleaning the crap out of the bottom of the fuel tank?

[burn_your_money]

Yes. It sounds like your fuel filter is clogged

[allsierra123]

Yeah B100 is really a great tank/line cleaner. It will just cut the garbage out of there and also clog your filter in the meantime.

[gldgti]

also (an idea) could be fusebox...

i had a problem where my 30 y/o mk1 fusebox (it was a '79) was so corroded internally that track 15 (ign power) would heat up and i'd lose power to the solenoid.... then once it cooled down you could head off again.

[VW_Commuter]

If the body is in good shape then everything else can be sorted out with the great info on this site and all of the members.  For $800, if the body isn't rusted out or completely trashed, I would snatch that baby up, get it home and get the title transfered over to me before your friend comes to his senses.  If you don't need it right away then I would get it home and start systematically troubleshooting the problem.  Connect up a pump to the filter inlet hose and pump some fuel directly into a glass jar so you can see the quality/clarity of the fuel entering the filter.  If the fuel is clear and clean then I would suspect that there might be something in the tank that is clogging the  tank outlet and when it dies the suction on that line finally goes away and the obstruction falls away allowing the engine to run again.  If you can get the car and have time and patience you can figure out exactly what the problem is and end up with a sweet little ride.

[molgrips]

When you start running on bio, you'll need several fuel filter changes in very quick succession.  You should also carry a filter around with you in the car along with the tools to change it.  If it's someone else's main driver (wife etc) then make sure you show them how to change it.