Dammit - car just failed to start ...

AndyP

AndyP

Member
United-Kingdom
Picking the kids up from school, 10 mins later go to drive away and it's showing all the signs of a fuel supply problem. Turns over, wil catch for a second or two then dies. Try again the same and again. Leave it for a couple of mins and the same. Now it just turns over and doesn't catch at all.

It has done similar once or twice before but just taken 2 or 3 attempts to start. Anyway, got a lift home, but now it's abandoned in the school car park which will be locked in an hour. Arrrrggghhhh! And I bet it will start first time tomorrow morning ....

I checked for error codes last time and there was nothing, didn't have the dongle with me this time. So my guess is cam/crank angle sensor or maybe fuel pump ...
First time I've had a hiccup in almost 170,000.
 
£5 from Lidl. Lights up red, yellow or green for battery charge and the. The same for alternator charging voltage. You can do the same with a voltmeter but where is the fun in that.

If you have a voltmeter you want something like 12.4v or above (that’s about 75% charge, 12.6/7 is ideal closer to full, it can theoretically go as high as 13.2!) - if it’s 12 (or less) then it’s not fully charged (under 50%) and a top up might help.
 
There is nothing wrong with the battery, that would be too easy. My problem is getting to the car, given kids, work, limited access (school car park is only open at during school run hours), not to mention I have to get the kids to school tomorrow.
 
And this morning it starts instantly - brilliant! And no fault codes - just what I need ....
 
Sounds like the problem is intermittent. I had something similar with my 1.4 petrol - would occasionally be difficult to start when the engine was already warm. Turned out to be dodgy connection to the coolant temperature sensor. A gentle tug on the wires might sort it out for a bit. I had to replace the sensor in the end, it seems some of these have thinner pins that don't make good contact.
 
I’ve had similar problems with my TDi. The first time it was the injector harness. Would fail while running then refuse to start for sometime. Once it started it ran fine.
The second time it would run fine but if I turned it off it would refuse to start. Had all the symptoms of fuel starvation. It was either the cam or crank sensor, can’t be sure which as I replaced both.
 
Yeah, I bought a spare cam sensor a few months back so I'll put that on. Crank sensor is a bit more hassle I think.
Anyway, the upside is that as a backup I have just added my TDi90 to the insurance, so maybe that will get to see some daylight.
 
ukrainian said:
Sounds like the problem is intermittent. I had something similar with my 1.4 petrol - would occasionally be difficult to start when the engine was already warm. Turned out to be dodgy connection to the coolant temperature sensor. A gentle tug on the wires might sort it out for a bit. I had to replace the sensor in the end, it seems some of these have thinner pins that don't make good contact.
Click to expand...

That is an interesting thought, dodgy coolant temp sensors can cause all sorts of mysterious problems. I also have a spare one of those, maybe I'll do that too just for fun.
 
soooo.... The last couple of mornings I had same sort of problem with JRV, although slightly different symptoms.

Car would start okay, but after about a minute (ie just as you are about to set off) the revs would collapse and the engine would stop - it then took about 10-15 turns of the key to get going again (lots and lots of cranking). Okay, my thoughts were initially battery or cam sensor. Another thing that led me to this was that it has been inordinately hot recently.

I put car on charge all of last night, and found that a) the battery was a bit low (normally would be okay) and that I was running low on fuel.

This morning I ran a VCDS scan over it, but found no faults to do with engine (still got the G202 YAW Sensor failure, but this has now been relegated to intermittent).

Driving it back I stopped off and filled up with fuel and ... started first turn of key and stayed started... I'll have to monitor this and we'll see what it might be.
 
sciroccorrado said:
soooo.... The last couple of mornings I had same sort of problem with JRV, although slightly different symptoms.

Car would start okay, but after about a minute (ie just as you are about to set off) the revs would collapse and the engine would stop - it then took about 10-15 turns of the key to get going again (lots and lots of cranking). Okay, my thoughts were initially battery or cam sensor. Another thing that led me to this was that it has been inordinately hot recently.

I put car on charge all of last night, and found that a) the battery was a bit low (normally would be okay) and that I was running low on fuel.

This morning I ran a VCDS scan over it, but found no faults to do with engine (still got the G202 YAW Sensor failure, but this has now been relegated to intermittent).

Driving it back I stopped off and filled up with fuel and ... started first turn of key and stayed started... I'll have to monitor this and we'll see what it might be.
Click to expand...

Well, it certainly looks like my issue was fuel starvation - when filled up the car is performing impeccably. Have to make sure that I keep filling it on about 250 miles rather than the 300-400 I'm used to (plus need to remember that JRV has a smaller fuel tank than the others!)
 
sciroccorrado said:
Well, it certainly looks like my issue was fuel starvation - when filled up the car is performing impeccably. Have to make sure that I keep filling it on about 250 miles rather than the 300-400 I'm used to (plus need to remember that JRV has a smaller fuel tank than the others!)
Click to expand...

In your case I would be thinking about fuel filter and pickup in the tank.
 
Well replacing the temp sensor does not appear to have fixed the problem. This only occurs when warm and sometimes it will start eventually but can take 10 seconds. No error codes to go on. Any ideas?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top