hard starting 90q

[Graham Thackrah]

Hi list,

Cheers in advance for any advice, my UK 85 90q (US 4kq +/-) stalled whilst
idling the other day and has since been hard/impossible to start. I went
through the checks for the ignition system and the coil, Hall sender, and
ignition control module all check out as per the tests in Haynes, the
rotor arm, distributor cap and HT leads are all < 1 year old and seem fine
(checked out resistances etc). When the car does start, after much
cranking, it stumbles badly when you blip the throttle, rather than
depressing it gradually. It idles fine though and if you do depress the
throttle gradually it will run fine up to high revs. If you shut it down
and try to restart immediately it will fire up fine, leave it for a while
and it gets harder. Is this a sign of a faulty/failing fuel pressure
accumulator? Or a fuel pump going south? I don't want to hear it if it is
likely to be the metering head!! The car _always_ started on the button
before this.

One of the plugs, when removed, showed signs of a little bit more coke
buildup than the others (#2 plug), could it be a dodgy injector(s) too?

I am confused if it is the pressure accumulator as I don't know why that
would have made the car stall in the first place? Unless something went
down the fuel lines when it failed?

Cherio,

Graham.

'85 90 quattro.

P.S. Hi Keith, sounds like a similar problem to yours, though I'd say mine
was stumbling through fuel starvation rather than backfiring through the
intake and, since the  initial stalling episode, the idle has been fine on
my car.

Are these classic fuel pressure accumulator symptoms do you think??