my 1.6d 86 golf 2-door 5 speed

[dbshiznit]

so I bought an 86 golf diesel this winter as my first car and after 3 months I find it slow lol I wish I didn't have to try so hard to keep up with traffic so I was wondering if anyone can tell me ways of freeing up the motor a little more so that I can enjoy driving it a little more...I will include pictures of my cars engine bay so you see my setup more or less....I have another problem...when I start the car and let it idle without touching the throttle my battery light stays on and if I give it gas it goes off ...same happens at night but after I start it I'll turn my headlights on and when I give it gas the light goes off and everything brightens up could it be my battery??? another problem I have is that when I drive and my car warms up the oil light/buzz come on when my car is idle and it is ANNOYING :'(...but if I shut it down then crank it back up and let it idle with the battery light on it wont do it but as soon as I give it gas and let it come back to idle the oil light/buzz go off again...does anyone have any idea on what this could be?? I appreciate your replies here are some pictures of my car from when I first got it..its a little different now the only recent picture I have is the one at night...

[Rabbit on Roids]

FAQ section has answers to most of your questions...

[burn_your_money]

Sweet car.

http://www.vwdiesel.net/forum/index.php?topic=4391.0

http://www.vwdiesel.net/forum/index.php?topic=22321.0

http://vincewaldon.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=28

I think that will cover it

[dbshiznit]

thanks for the help guys......burn_your_money those three links are really helpful I'm definitely going to check out everything on my car today according to those links hopefully I can fix it all up and enjoy driving it without buzzers 

[burn_your_money]

Glad to help. Let us know how it goes.

[dbshiznit]

so after a day with a few interruptions I got work done on the car...I got my reverse lights on and works perfect my shifting light still doesn't come on for some reason but it can be from the cluster panel..now when it comes to my oil light its a whole different story...I took both sensors out cleaned them and put them back in and still nothing...I'm starting to think its a wiring problem since it only happens when the battery light goes off...I really wish I could get this fixed for its the only thing that I hate about the car right now and with that fixed I wouldn't have more problems with it...hopefully someone will come across this post and help me out but the links I got from burn_your_money really helped me out I cleaned the terminals on my battery and its still the same but my friend said he could help me so hopefully I'll find out whats doing it next weekend...let me know if you have any ideas to what it could be I'm open to suggestions

[vanbcguy]

Both the shift light and the oil pressure warning system rely on a signal from the 'W' terminal on your alternator... If your shift light isn't working and you're having issues with the oil pressure warning system then this might be a place to start your diagnostics!

[rabbitman]

I have another problem...when I start the car and let it idle without touching the throttle my battery light stays on and if I give it gas it goes off ...same happens at night but after I start it I'll turn my headlights on and when I give it gas the light goes off and everything brightens up could it be my battery???

Sounds like it's working right , the alternator won't start charging until you rev it a bit and then the headlights will get brighter from the 13.5ish volts the alt is putting out, once you rev it it'll keep charging even when it idles.

It's fun messing around trying to get power out of these but adding a turbo will give you the most.

Before doing too much fuel increasing you should get a pyrometer, without one it's possible to do some real damage .

[Vincent Waldon]

What were the results of these troubleshooting steps... particularly 4d:

1)      Warm the engine up to full operating temperature (rad fan has cycled at least once) and then shut the engine off.

2)      Turn the key to “on”; the oil pressure warning light should come on thanks to the lo-pressure sender on the head.  If the light doesn’t come on there’s a problem with the lo-pressure sender, the wiring to that sender, or the dash cluster. A test light between the sensor and the positive battery post should light when the car is off and go out when the car is idling, if the sensor is ok
 
3)      Start the engine… the oil pressure warning light should go out.  This tells you the engine has oil pressure appropriate for idle. If the light does not go out you have low-pressure sensor problems or oil pressure problems:  STOP and figure it out before driving away !

4)       Slowly rev the engine up to 2500 RPM… the light should stay out and the buzzer should be quiet.  If the buzzer sounds you need to troubleshoot the hi-pressure system:

a.      Disconnect the wire to the hi pressure sensor on the filter flange and let it dangle.  The oil buzzer should now come on above 2000 RPM

b.      Now ground the yellow wire and rev the engine past 2000 RPM… the buzzer should not sound.

c.      If you fail either of these tests you have sensor issues, wiring,  or cluster issues.

d.      A test light between the sensor and the positive battery terminal should be off at warm idle and come on as you rev the engine, if the sensor on the flange is working properly. If the buzzer still sounds with the wire to the sensor grounded the problem is most likely the wiring to the cluster or the cluster itself.

[dbshiznit]

I tried everything and came up with nothing so I decided to record what happens on my cluster panel let me know if you have any idea of what could be happening or if its just me that cant make it work.....

VIDEO 0021


when the light/buzz go off is when I'm giving it gas and then I shut the motor down and started it back up..notice how the battery light is on and no light/buzz go off then I give it gas and it goes back to the same thing

[dbshiznit]

so I have noticed something latelly....my shifter light works now until the car warms up....while the shifter light works I do not get the oil buzz/light..once the car warms up shifter light stops and the oil buzz/light goes off could it be the cluster that is bad and everytime the temperature gauge reaches the middle it makes a bad contact of some sort?

[Smokey Eddy]

i dont know pre-90 at ALL but that on my car is not normal oil light behavior.
it should either be flashing solidly or nothing. On an MK2 it means the oil pressure is low. I would check to see how cleanly the cluster is grounding... when you turn the key to ACC it is also odd that the oil light continue to flash and flicker like that...
the battery light goes out because you have "excited" to alternator by reving it passed a certain rpm and it is induced to start charging. I wouldn't worry about that.

either its the quality of the video or the oil light doesn't flash uniformly?

[dbshiznit]

unfortunatly its the video quality it does flash uniformly but another thing I noticed today when the oil buzz/light go off and I hit the brakes it goes off louder I'm starting to think that this is an issue with the alternator and that when it warms up with the motor it starts to mess up