Hi there,

A year or so ago I bought a MK1 for my wife to putt around in, and a while after we bought it we found it would start crapping out intermittently. Starts running rough, then rougher, then starts to cut out, then cuts out completely. Leave it for 5 - 10 minutes, start it agian, and it will run fine for a while, then the cycle starts again. Eventually it lasts less between crap outs. I did notice a large amount of air/bubbles in the fuel filter, which I've searched about here and read several theories as to it's cause. However, the difference here is that the air was making me suspect there might be a leak somewhere closer to the tank, which might explain the intermittency, and explain why it gets worse as time went on. So we have figured out if we keep the tank full, and fill it up every 50km, then the problem never happens.

I took it to my local mechanic (who I trust, but has openly admitted to not being a Golf expert), without mentioning my theory, and he came up with the exact same one. He thinks there might be a crack in the fuel line inside the tank, likely up high. However he said replacing the tank is very costly from a time point of view as it has to come out from underneath?

Anyway, I just wanted to check with the MK1 experts on here whether they agree it is a problem with the fuel line exiting the tank, or whether its more likely one of the other "air/bubbles in fuel filter" problems I've read about here (fuel return line, leak in hose near clamp etc).

Thanks.