Volkswagen Golf II (1983 - 1992) - 1985 1.6 Supermarket Petrol

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Thu 26 Mar 2009 18:25
1985 1.6 Supermarket Petrol - ggh1
Yesterday I drove my wife's Golf (which never had a knock sensor and was designed to run on 91 RON petrol) 10 miles to a supermarket with no problems. As the petrol gauge was on empty I put in 10 pounds of 95 RON petrol. Five minutes later I heard a knocking noise coming from under the bonnet only when the engine was under load. I thought it might be a CV joint or exhaust heat shield etc. but I could not find the source of the noise. Today the noise was worse, so as a last resort I put in 5 pounds of finest BP 97 RON petrol and 5 minutes later I could not get the car to make any unusual noise at all. I wonder what that supermarket sold me!
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Thu 26 Mar 2009 19:49
1985 1.6 Supermarket Petrol - scrapmetal
I always use 97 ron in my mk3 golf, it runs much better and i get better mpg.
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Thu 26 Mar 2009 20:46
1985 1.6 Supermarket Petrol - Woodspeed
This is a simple carb engine which should run happily on 95 octane or lower. Late Mk2 Gtis,16valve and all Mk3 can run better on higher than 95 octane.

There are no fancy ECUs or injection systems to worry about pn a Mk2 1.6. Knock sensors were only fitted to injection engines from about 87/88 when the GTi 8 valve changed from K Jetronic to Motronic. In 1985 I think it would run on 2* star which was probably below 95. Sounds like the timing is out and is too advanced. Don't know off the top of my head (Gti's I could reel off). You would need a timing light and a look at the Haynes manual as to whether pipes need to be pulled off and how to line up the timing marks. I would think it is also done at idle when the engine is hot. If the car uses points rather than electronic ignition (and some Golf 2s in 85/86 were basic points ignition) as the points wear the timing advances so change the points too. If there are 2 small pipes to the distributor make sure they are in good order (just pull them off, place finger over end and suck - it should hold pressure). With 2 pipes 1 acts as a retard ignition on acceleration.

When all working again, there could be a build up of carbon on the plugs and valves which can glow red hot and ignite the fuel before the spark. A good Italian tune up should sort out any gently driven town car.

Oh, and a tip. If timing not been done for a while, the distributor can seize to the block. Give it a good squirt of pentrating oil the night before at the very base (the 13mm bolt needs to be loose to move the distributor round for timing adkjustment).
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