1.4 petrol wouldn't start yesterday

shreddedmeat

shreddedmeat

Active Member
Well, after 3 days of happy A2 ownership, we have this :mad:

Parked car up late Monday night and it was fine. Went out to the car Tues afternoon, hopped in and it wouldn't start, just kept turning over

It reminded me of a battery issue I had once with a Toyota Aygo, so I checked in the boot and it was dated Jan '03; i.e. car is still on original battery. I noticed the drivers side map light was on, so I thought I'd probably left it on all night causing a power drain. On top of this, i'd wound down both electric windows and turned on the radio before trying to start the car, so I though maybe this had drained even more. Called my dad up to bring over his jump leads - we tried and failed to jump it off his Volvo.

Next step, call in RAC. I had to leave, but got my dad to wait in for the RAC - so what I know has been relayed through him

Mechanic confirmed that the battery wasn't at fault if all electrical fixtures were still working (makes sense). He connected to the car's diagnostic port and it was reporting 8 faults, but he thought these were prexisting over the lifetime of the vehicle, so he 'cleared' them and reconnected, and it reported no faults. Puzzling :confused:

This is when it gets stranger. Mechanic began to check fuses etc. in the footwell when the car just started on its own! (although I don't know whether he was trying the ignition at the same time). He had no idea how he fixed the problem; all he could suggest is a loose connection...

Car has been started, stopped and restarted about 7 or 8 times without issue, and starts fine after driving for a short time. He recommended that if it happens again, I go to a dealer so they can run a full scan on the car but that it was likely going to cause some headaches. Have driven today and it seems fine, started 3 times on the the first turn of the key...

I've searched, and it seems crankshaft speed sensor and faulty ignition barrel are common problems, but Im not sure they apply here.


Any ideas? I don't want to be stranded totally at random sometime in the future if at all possible!
 
Hmmm...

My car have almost the same issue. My wife have been using it for work, and we have a Defa warmer with charger that she use every day.
The last 2 weeks the car have been crazy. It sometimes starts as if nothing is wrong, and sometimes it's completly dead.

We have changed the battery, so it's not the battery.
1 week ago she tried to charge the car but even with 12Volt on the battery it did not start. We pushed it to a hill and it started.
3 days ago it did not start. Dead. battery was 10Volt with my voltmeter. I disconnected ground cable and the battery was 12ish Volt. Connected the groundcable, still 12V and the car started.....
yesterday it did not start again... I went there with my car and jumpercables. connected those. my car charge with 14,7V messured on my car and on the clips on her car. but the battery said 10,4V??? This I don't get. I then disconnected the ground again, charged the battery for 2 minutes with the jumpers. connected ground. Started fine..

Last night I did a measure on the battery while pulling fuses. Nothing changed. I have timer and remote to the webasto. Turned it on and the battery was draining fast! Pulled the fuse to the heater and the battery was regaining.
I have now removed the fuse to the heater and charged the battery with a big charger this night. almost full this morning.

My wife went to work. When she should go home.... the car did not start. She charged the battery with the emergencycharge and it started.


Bret, you say earthpoints in the well... any known issue? There should not be a ground error on this car as the body is alu?
Also we have Xenonkits on the car, could faulty ignitors do this?
 
Ok so, issue has returned after vanishing for 3 weeks or so:

Got in car, started fine, drove around the corner and stopped at a junction and the car stalled. I've noticed it stalling a lot the past few days. Restarted and the engine rpm went wild between 1000-2000, managed to steady it with the throttle. Seemed ok once I'd pulled away... got to the shop, parked up and when I returned to restart it, the engine wouldn't 'catch' properly. It did once but couldn't maintain any revs and stalled again. Managed to start it after 3 or 4 attempts by giving it plenty of gas, at which point the engine light came on and I drove straight home and parked it up.

Taking it to a dealer/auto electrician asap, will report back for others
 
Sounds to me like a combination of bad connection under floor plus maybe choke needs cleaning, a common fault on 1.4 vw engine. Best of luck, its really annoying when something goes wrong with your new car and is prob why it was sold. But nothing that cant be fixed. Cheers Colin
 
If it turns and won't catch, could it be either throttle or fuel related? Definitely get a scan report, better to ask the print out of all the fault codes. Clean the throttle body, change the fuel filter can be cheap easy starting point if the codes aren't saying much. Engine crank sensor possibly?
 
I have 8 fault codes! It seems everyone was right to some extent:

16407 P0023 B sporadic:
camshaft position actuator circuit (bank2): Malfunction

16588 P0204 Cylinder sporadic:
4, injector circuit-N33: open

16586 P0202 Cylinder sporadic:
2, injector circuit-N31: open

16585 P0201 Cylinder sporadic:
1, injector circuit-N30: open

16587 P0203 Cylinder sporadic:
3, injector circuit-N32: open

17834 P1426 sporadic:
Evaporative emission (EVAP) system pure control valve circuit:eek:pen

17525 P1117 H02S sporadic:
heater circuit Bank 1-sensor 2: low

17524 P1116 H02S sporadic
heater circuit, Bank 1-sensor 1


Mechanic suggested a timing issue could be at the heart of this, causing the misfires on all cylinders and in turn triggering the fuel/air mix codes. Car is getting its long overdue cam belt change on Tuesday so I'm hoping this might solve some of these problems?
 
shreddedmeat said:
...
16407 P0023 B sporadic:
camshaft position actuator circuit (bank2): Malfunction
...
Mechanic suggested a timing issue could be at the heart of this, causing the misfires on all cylinders and in turn triggering the fuel/air mix codes. Car is getting its long overdue cam belt change on Tuesday so I'm hoping this might solve some of these problems?
Click to expand...

If you look at the fault code 16407, it says bank2, but no A2 has more than a single bank of cylinders! Unfortunately from this past thread http://www.a2oc.net/forum/showthread.php?9542-Ecu-fault you *could* be looking at a possible ECU replacement. But your mechanic might be right on the cambelt although I can't confidently say that'll fix it. I do hope that works.
 
throttle body, camsensor - the one at the back of the engine, in a nice warm place, which is susceptible to heat.

I'd put money on the sensor before the ECU as that's the thing that's prone to issues, especially if they're to do with warm running and cold starts are fine every time.

- Bret
 
I'm guessing an ECU replacement is a pricey job...

Have read a lot on here about that camshaft sensor, not too difficult a job I take it?

With regards to what Colin said about it being the reason for selling, it seems pretty likely to me. Previous owner was insistent that the cam belt didn't need to be done til 80k, I guess his ignorance might prove to be his downfall ;)

At any rate I'll just have to see how I get on after the cam belt is replaced... fingers crossed

Cheers
 
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Update: Timing belt changed

Well, the car now runs/idles a lot smoother, and accelerates a lot more eagerly than it did before...will report back if the problem reoccurs

Cheers
 
Thread update: 4 months on

Sorry to update an old thread but I thought it might be good practise to keep all info on this matter grouped together, in case anyone comes across it. Updating as the problem appears to have finally been solved (I've avoided creating new threads on this since then to gather professionals' opinions).

Following April's timing belt change, the issue reoccured sporadically (was unable to investigate too much until I was sure I could afford repairs :D). By July the problem was frequent, although it never failed to start completely.

The mechanic I use a lot couldn't get to the bottom of this in two days, so it was off to the dealer. Replaced Lambda probe and spark plugs to the tune of £340, was told the mechanic was 'very confident' the problem would be solved, no faults reading in the system once work done etc etc. 40 minutes after picking the car up the problem was back. Very angry. Straight back to the dealer the next day, no faults, car starting perfectly. Booked in for 2 days.

Just collected the car from the dealer, the mechanic has been working on it for 3 days(!) In the end, they 'recalibrated and recoded' the cars software completely.... What they mean by that I'm not sure, but as long as it works I'm happy.


Just a quick note: I know some dealers have a bad rep, but I must applaud the service from Tyneside Audi. They gave me use of a nice A3 TFSI for three days with a free tank of petrol, free lowered insurance (£50 excess instead of £5000), and replaced a dodgy brake light switch (£7) for free after finding it faulty. 3 days working on the car cost me absolutely nothing, not even labour, and they kept me in the loop the whole time. Very impressed.
 
Re bank 2 fault. Mine showed that after a cambelt change when I had the throttle body cleaned by a different garage. As it was running well I ignored it for a while, then took it back to the garage who did the throttle body and logged the fault. They kept it for the morning, said nothing was wrong (the fault had cleared) and charged me £60. They said that bank 2 refered to the 2nd camshaft, but that my timing was spot on. ??? Moral is if its going ok dont fix it. (Except for belts of course) I swapped my beloved A2 for a Yaris sport due to the ongoing cost of belt replacement, only to now have got timing chain rattle (at 54k) on the Yaris. You cant win can you. Cheers Colin
 
Mine popped up with this little gem yesterday. error 16407. The Engine warning light came up along with the EPC light. It's not had it's new cambelt and water pump change longer than 6 weeks. It's been running fine until yesterday, and I did put a bottle of Redex and and full tank of shell 97 in it. So perhaps it's cleared out something or done something to it. It certainly didn't feel as spritely as it has done in the past few weeks.

I cleared the fault and drove 70miles home and it didn't come back on.

There i was thinking the 1.4 would be reliable!
 
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