VW Cabrio won't stay running after a rain storm

Asked by SusanBA Jun 20, 2017 at 11:29 AM about the 2002 Volkswagen Cabrio 2 Dr GL Convertible

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

I read a few other posts about this and they mentioned possible cracked
distributer cap. Is it easy to see / check the distributer cap. If so, where is it? I
only do basic things. So do you think I need a mechanic to check that?
My daughter stalled out on a bridge this morning, about 1 mile from where she
started. This is the second time this has happened after a torrential rain. I was
going to try dry gas, but by the time I bought the dry gas and returned, the car
started, after sitting about 35 minutes.

1 Answer
125

Noah answered 6 years ago

You dont have a distributor cap. A possible source for electric short (which is whats happening) is a faulty coil pack or main wiring harness. Those wiring harnesses were made in mexico 15 years ago and didnt meet high heat specs. So consequently they get brittle and crack and then short, causing misfires at first then in your case stalling out completely. What I did was splice in a harness from the firewall to the coil pack and it worked well. See if you can talk a good vw mechanic into it for @1000 and a case of Rolling Rock.

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