Mk3 Golf 2.0 GTI Problem (Electrics?)

[ianhowells]

I'm having a problem in a Mk3 97 GTI 2.0 Golf whereby the last 3 times I have made a journey in the car the engine dies after about 10 minutes from it's initial start.

It's only 10mins after the initial start that this occurs and after anything from 10 secs to 10 mins after cut out, the ignition key will start the engine again after a retry.

In fact the 2nd time this occurred I topped up the oil thinking that was the issue then preceded to drive from Scotland to London with no further issue only for the same problem to reoccur the day after 10mins or so after driving from cold.

Not knowing a great deal about cars, initially I thought it was oil related as the oil light came on when the car engine died but this may just be a red herring.

Any ideas? I'd like to have a feel for people's thoughts (especially if there's something I can check) so the garage doesn't fleece me!

Thanks

[KebabMeister]

I would be looking at the automatic choke.  After about 10 minutes the engine should be warm and with the autochoke going off the engine falls below idle speed and stalls.  So there's either something wrong with the choke system or the engine management system (or associated sensor on the induction side).  When you restart the car it probably senses that the engine is warm and returns to normal idle speed.

As for the oil warning light, if the engine idle speed is too low, as in about to stall, then there isn't enough oil pressure and the light will come on.  This isn't nothing to worry about, just that your engine is stalling.