1.4tdi Starting Issue

putyourmittenson

Well-Known Member
Hi, My first post to the forums as new A2 owner.
Hopefully you guys can help out.
I recently purchased an A2 of off a fellow a2oc member, however have now discovered an issue with it starting.
When you try to start the car it turns over on the starter motor but doesn't fire up, usually after maybe 10seconds of trying it splutters into life and is fine.
Previous owner had changed glow plugs and thought that had solved it. Now a new battery has been fitted and that hasn't helped and the fuel filter is new and genuine.
What else could it be?
Cheers
 
Hi, My first post to the forums as new A2 owner.
Hopefully you guys can help out.
I recently purchased an A2 of off a fellow a2oc member, however have now discovered an issue with it starting.
When you try to start the car it turns over on the starter motor but doesn't fire up, usually after maybe 10seconds of trying it splutters into life and is fine.
Previous owner had changed glow plugs and thought that had solved it. Now a new battery has been fitted and that hasn't helped and the fuel filter is new and genuine.
What else could it be?
Cheers
As suggested, a scan would help identify the cause.

Possible causes, range from a fuel line leak (possibly caused by the change of filter if it has happened since)
If you park on a slope, try parking the car facing down the slope, if that makes a difference it might be a small leak (long shot)

Also it might be the temperature sender. Is it easier to start on warm days or cold days?

But a scan might show something.

Steve B
 
if this only happens on first start up of the day and heater, glow plugs are working correctly, id say it could be fuel side, as had this fault before, on a diesel where after the car is left overnight or for any length of time the fuel presure drops , my fault was on the injector return to tank lines one of the tiny return pipes that connected to each injector had become slightly perished allowing a slight air leak and allowed the fuel to drain back to the tank, thus it became a pig to start so it seemed but turned out it was just the time it took to build up the correct fuel pressure before the injectors would work correctly and then it would fire up .

As you mention a recent fuel filter id suggest starting there as seems quite a common thing not getting the assemble back together correctly which would cause a slight air leak and allow a drop in feul presure if left for any ammount of time.
 
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Great Response. Thanks.
Yes i think you are right about it being fuel related. And the previous owner had it parked on a slope facing down so that would suggest why he didn't have much of an issue with it starting if gravity was keeping the fuel in the lines.
Its now cold and dark here so going to have to look at this again tomorrow.
Im going to refit the filter and hope that helps. Then inspect any other potential leaks in the system.
Cheers.
 
Another thing to add to the list, is clean the earth strap connection bolt which is located behind the passenger side headlight, under the ABS unit.

It will look ok from first glance, but there could be corrosion behind. It is a common problem.

It may not be what is causing your current problem, but it will certainly be good to check it.
 
Ive just refitted the fuel filter. it seemed to me that one of the quick release lips wasn't correctly seated.
However it still isn't starting. Is there any way to bleed out any air that has got into the system?
Glow plugs are the correct ones and i covered about 500 miles over the weekend in the car which apart from being slow to start was faultless once going.
 
Ive just refitted the fuel filter. it seemed to me that one of the quick release lips wasn't correctly seated.
However it still isn't starting. Is there any way to bleed out any air that has got into the system?
Glow plugs are the correct ones and i covered about 500 miles over the weekend in the car which apart from being slow to start was faultless once going.

Hi,

the A2 system is self bleeding and so once you have repaired the source of the leak the air will be removed by cranking of the starter (you might need to pause in between attempts and have a strong battery. That is if you mean it won't start at all now, or do you mean that it has started, but not resolved the problem?

If it is the later then perhaps you have an additional leak or perhaps the leak is not the cause after all.

Steve B
 
As steve has already mentioned it takes forever for the system to refill and eventually it will restart once the system has refilled and up to pressure , unless youv still got an air leak that is.
 
Success (for now) after what seemed an eternity of cranking it and having the car hooked up to a different battery, the car started. All seems well now and has just covered about 50miles and started again at intervals in that mileage. Hopefully it will start straight up after it has been sitting and that should be sorted! Time will only tell.
Thank you much for the great (and very fast) help. Hopefully they're won't be many more issues with the car but I'm sure you lot will be on hand to give advice if there is.
 
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Fingers crossed for you.

If the starter turns slower than you would expect you definitely need to check the earth on the right hand side of the engine bay.

There are many posts on here about it and I wasted money on a replacement starter not so long ago, only to find that it was the main starter eath connection. It was tight and looked ok but the washer on the bolt had burnt areas where it had been arcing.

Steve B
 
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Back again. Problem not solved with a new fuel filter.
Still takes an age to start but now once running it is stuttering when the engine is put under load. Sometimes at idle i notice the car is particular rough and is quite 'shaky'. Again I'm thinking air in the fuel lines but worse. Diagnostics is throwing up nothing.
How do i check for an air leak in the fuel system, no obvious signs of a fuel leak and everything seems tight.
HELP!
 
Battery connections in the boot all tight? There are more connections under the black plastic cover. Check those too
 
Id go for the fuel filter assembly as the area you need to be looking in for your air leak as seems youv made the problem worse now, i remember reading somewhere a member had put the filter in the wrong way arround which causes problems as they are directional, id also say the slightest of air leaks will cause trouble on the diesels and may not even show signs of a leak and would also explain why yours took forever to fire up after you had it apart.
 
Ok so I've lived with this issue since February and have constantly been meaning to sort it. In the past two weeks the issue has been getting worse and worse. The car takes an age to start with lots of cranking and when it does start there is lots of white smoke which smells of burning which is present regardless of engine temp but I can't see it once up to motorway speed.

There's nothing coming back on the diagnostics. It's had a new battery recently and I've changed the fuel filter again and the vacuum pump gaskets.
Today I noticed that there is a constant flow of coolant going back into the reservoir.

Anyone had any similar experience or have any ideas?! Help


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