Russian Roulette

C

Carol Bruton

Member
It feels like I'm playing Russian Roulette every time I get in my car as to whether it will start or not :( which is really annoying.

For the last 2 months or so my A2 1.4 SE has been playing up by not starting by this I mean all the lights come on the dash. when I try to turn the engine over, once it's said 'ok' it won't fire.

On a number of occasions it's normaly on the third start that it comes to life again but this has been quite distressing at times when its happened at either a petrol station or car parks as it seems to choose it moments quite well.

Well today it did it again but this time instead of starting on the 3rd try I got to about 10 times before I gave up, left it a couple of hours but thankfully I wasn't far from home. When I returned it wouldn't start again on the first go but got it to start and got home.

Phoned mobile mechanic to come out for a Vag Com check. once that had completed the engine turned over no problem in front of the guy, which is really annoying.

The Vag Com has brought back faults which I will list, I have got screen shots of them. when I figure how to upload them I will. Any help with this would be great - Many Thanks Carol
 
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Not.sure if these screen shots are legible? I will.type out tomorrow if not.

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Hi,

Firstly, welcome to the forum / club.

Those error codes do not relate to the starting or to the engine in any way.

They relate to the CCCU (the brain that controls the alarm and windows etc.)

It is quite common to se those faults if the battery on the car has ever run low and if you have had trouble starting the car that is highly likely.


As for your starting problem, when you say that it won't start, do you mean that the starter motor is not even spinning the engine over, or is it spinning but not firing up?

Steve B
 
Spinning but not firing so I can hear the engine trying to start but it does get there.

The battery had a faulty cell this was replaced in Feb this year. Checked batt yesterday it's fully charged.

When I described this issue to kwick fit they said as the problem was presenting at the time they couldn't say for sure what was wrong with it but said it could be a sticky starter motor?

Engine was fine this morning when I nipped out and it was idling at 1 on.the rev counter where I've noticed some days it will fluctuate quite abit under the 1 and not settle on a point and other days will idle just over 1.

Hope that helps oh and I had it serviced and mot'd in may from.a local garage I'm.not sure if they actually did a service now :(

Noticed as well that it's not holding my.biting point as well as it used to so when I've done a 3 point turn or reverse parking this has never happened in the past I'm well past the point of being able not to stall my car but on.both those occasions it stalled and then hoping when I turned it back on it would fire ok.
 
Carol Bruton said:
Spinning but not firing so I can hear the engine trying to start but it does get there.

The battery had a faulty cell this was replaced in Feb this year. Checked batt yesterday it's fully charged.

When I described this issue to kwick fit they said as the problem was presenting at the time they couldn't say for sure what was wrong with it but said it could be a sticky starter motor?

Engine was fine this morning when I nipped out and it was idling at 1 on.the rev counter where I've noticed some days it will fluctuate quite abit under the 1 and not settle on a point and other days will idle just over 1.

Hope that helps oh and I had it serviced and mot'd in may from.a local garage I'm.not sure if they actually did a service now :(

Noticed as well that it's not holding my.biting point as well as it used to so when I've done a 3 point turn or reverse parking this has never happened in the past I'm well past the point of being able not to stall my car but on.both those occasions it stalled and then hoping when I turned it back on it would fire ok.
Click to expand...

It does not seem like starter motor in the least, if you have a healthy engine and spin it a couple of times, it will fire up.
So I think we can discount the starter motor (unless it is hardly spinning at all, which doesn't seem to be the case.

The fact that the car is more prone to stalling at the moment is also a huge clue. If the engine is not at its best and has any issues, it will become hard to start and it will be low on power. (sometimes affecting the tick-over speed) You seem to have all of these symptoms!.

A service will not make the difference between a car starting or not, so I wouldn't necessarily doubt that it was serviced.

The battery change probably caused most, if not all of your error codes that you list above (these are stored unless they have been cleared since they occurred, so as I said in my reply they are almost certainly related to when you had the battery problem.

It sounds like it could possibly be a faulty temperature sender, fooling the engine into thinking it is hot when it is cold, or the other way around.

A full VCDS scan from one of our local members is probably the best "next step". They should be able to monitor the temperature sender readings.

But yes, it does seem like the engine has a minor issue causing to not run at its best.

It should not be a hugely costly problem so don't panic (yet).

A dealer may be a costly option but if you want peace of mind, it might be an issue (depending on the quality of the dealer!)

Steve B
 
Idle revs will vary depending on at least engine temp, perhaps also outside temp. My 1.4 petrol tends to idle at about 1100 rpm when cold and then drop to about 900 rpm when warm.
 
Agreed, BUT the tick-over should be steady (reasonably) at all temperatures. A needle that is moving around and won't stay reasonably stable, indicates a problem.

Steve B
 
Hello

I had that kind of trouble last year.
I found that one of the spark plug lead was not connecting correctly with the plug. At the time, I cleaned it and connect it back. It work for a while, but I believe because of the engine's heat the connection was not correct again. I then ordered a set of these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310824250469?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
It cured the problem.
Unfortunately, to be on the safe side, I also replace the Ignition Coil Pack. And because of the price, I bought a non-OEM one and I have now a lot of RFI when I am listening to the radio.

Hope that can help.
 
Thank you for all your comments and suggestions I've booked it into a recommend garage my neighbor uses (he buys and sells cars and uses this garage to carry out the work when he can't) so will update when hopefully I've had it fixed - thanks again for your help it's very much appreciated x
 
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