Hi All, Have been having trouble with this car for a while, and now it is not starting again. Essentially, it was having trouble idling (very lumpy) and was slow to respond to the accelerator pedal. Having a quick play with the wires to the sensor seemed to improve the idle rpm (make it steadier), then the next morning it died completely, and wouldn't idle/start at all. Got the mechanic/electrical specialist out to have a look and found some frayed/burt wires where the loom had fallen away, so he repaired/replaced those. Still no start. From testing all the other connections we found no power going to the injectors, and thus a faulty relay 168 or 167 or whatever. The crankshaft sensor was also completely shot with wires showing and touching and basically nearly fused together! Its a wonder it ever drove before tbh! I've had a lot of work done on it previously: New Dizzy cap and rotor arm, new coolant temperature sensor, new cambelt and tensioner, and even a new ECU, all trying to solve an overfueling problem (apparently injectors staying open for 35ms!!) And now, new crankshaft sensor and injector relay! Unfortunately its still not starting! Where we are now: Tested fuel pump and its fine, fuel is getting into the engine! Tested the ecu relay (30) and its fine. Tested sparks and they are strong, although slightly orange in colour? Could this indicate a weak coil pack? As mentioned, injectors have power and a pulse. So we seem to have everything required for a car to start working as it should, but no cigar :/. Compression was previously tested as fine, and the mechanic pulled the plugs and put some oil down there to increase compression incase it was weak, but no joy either! After replacing the crankshaft sensor and injector relay, the first time we tried it caught slightly, but died almost instantly... also, there seems to be no suction from the air intake (where you'd spray that starter gas thing), but disconnecting the sensors don't make a difference. I have another guy coming to look at it tomorrow, but is there anything obvious I'm missing to check? Kind regards, T4
next step is plug vagcom into it, check for codes and read the measuring blocks to make sure all the sensor inputs are good. throttle position, coolant temp and engine speed when cranking all worth a look! this thread has the abf label files which makes it easier to read the blocks, plus it has some other handy abf tests in it: http://www.clubgti.com/showthread.php?199583 oh and check the vacuum pipe from the ecu to the nipple on the back of the inlet manifold near the throttle body, if thats bad it will make it hard/impossible to start
Ok, so mechanic thinks that its gotten a bent valve. The cambelt was 3 teeth out of line again, due to the VW garage putting the tensioner on the wrong way. I don't have money to get the compression checked again, about a month ago it was supposedly fine. The only other thing he thinks could make a difference is that the engine is flooded. Any way to help it evaporate (other than taking the oil out)? He recommends not bothering with paying for any more repairs/diagnostics as it'd be a waste.... I've already wasted $3000 on trying to keep this thing alive, so unless anyone has any other suggestions , I think its going to the auction house.
get it lined up back to TDC and belt fitted properly, pull the plugs and just leave it for the fuel to dry out. clean the plugs if they need it and try again, it wont cost you anything. if the car cut out at low revs you might possibly have got away without valve damage. worst case a new head swapped over will solve the bent valve issues, just a case of how much do you love the car if you cant do the job yourself. If you're sure the VW place put the belt on wrong then I would be going back there and demand they put it right...
Thanks John, think I'm going to take it back and get them to sort it out. Can't afford a new head/I'm not a mechanic/Have no tools etc. so if it cant be done for free, it'll be scrapped . Love the car when it drove well, but travelling NZ with it so on a really limited budget which keeps getting smaller lol. Will let you know the outcome incase they find something else causing it. As I said, this is the third time the timing is off by a few teeth.
Were you able to solve this issue? I have the same scenario excluding the belt issue and it is getting really frustrating. Let me know what happened. cheers.
