Another ABF non starter: Help please deciphering Vagcom data...

Have you got any faults shown?

 

No faults. In desperation I have borrowed an ecu, clocks and immob and now have a spark. Horrah.
Fuel is a funny colour though so draining the tank. 10+ gallons.............
Trying to find the right relay to short out
Jon

 

Bottom right relay in the fuse box Jon.

 

Ta. found it one of Rubjonny's epic threads. New fuel in. Now I get immobiliser fault. Had enough for today.
At least I am making some progress. No idea why changing the ECU/insts/immob restored the spark. Presumably because I was trying to fault find a system without faults.
Useful hint found during yesterday/today is that a multimeter with hz will read the crank sensor frequency by tapping into centre wire.
Jon

 

Found something interesting in my box of spare coils. Thought this may get a few grey cells moving here. Everybody says the ABF coils are crap, and to me, its likely to be the fact that they are a combined amp and coil in a small footprint.

Well I found a 9A coil which is the old K jet style size and shape with an additional external amp on it, built as a one piece sub assembly. The amp has 3 terminals in a multiplug , marked as 1,2,3. This is defo a vw part, and iuts came with a 9A engine I got eons ago

Presuming these 1,2,3 are equivalent to the ANF markings, this could be fitted as an 'uopgrade'. Could it?????????????????
Jon

Car still not going.........had a 5 day holiday from working on it...........

 

I put a 9a coil on my car. The separate ignitor wasn't up to scratch and got very hot. On a standard setup it may work ok though.

 

That's nice to know. Think it should work fine. Presume the numbers match up. Electronics only get hot when they dissipate power (obviously..) and switching should minimise this. If the amp is told to drive continuously (like an old coil and points system can do with the points off cam) it may warm up, I suppose.
This seems like an obvious upgrade to me
Anyway, the pigging ABF non runner is now showing immob probs with another ECU/immob box/set of insts fitted. Will have to persevere. Long shot but there anybody within a 10 mile radius sunderland has a known good sets of ecu/immob/insts I could loan/buy?
Alternative is to get the immob defeated. 75 quid the going rate?
Jon

 

Do you know Andrew Outhwaite from up your way?

Think he can do immo defeats.

He's based nr Croft.

 

Yes, good idea.
Car is worth putting back on the road, as its a 90K Cordoba Sx (don't laugh, they are good!)
Jon

 

Two little bits of info from you guys that would help me;

1: Are the instruments part of the immobiliser? (Its a T plate SX cordoba) ?
2. Is the little pickup ring round the ignition key universal? Or does it form part of the immobiliser circuit and is coded?

I have three sets of ECU/Key/IMMOB/key/pickup ring and at the moment I am swapping just the key/ecu/IMMOB box around. ie leaving the instruments and pickup ring alone.

What's slowing this job down enormously is my vagcom laptop crashing all the time.........

 

The clocks aren't part of it.

The pickup ring is universal

You have to have a matched key and immo box. The ECU can be matched with vagcom.

Vag tacho might help with the immo box and key. It will show you what the pin is of the key.

 

Great thanks
Jon

 

Little sprinting day out today. Got class win in 3B. Only 3 in the class though. Mk1 went quite well, a bit fluffy over 6500rpm, think jets need revisiting.
Elec PS seems ok.
Jon
Have a fourth set of cordoba sx ecu/immob/key coming...................going to start a car electronics wholesale business soon

 

Really sorry to see you're still having problems getting the cordoba going jon, I thought it would've been an easy fix seeing as there was no tell-tale signs of bad running etc before she gave up. The car was running at the time when it cut out and hasnt ran since.

I was wondering whether the fuel I put in was maybe dirty, I did put a full tank in it at a local BP garage, however if you have put new fuel in and it's no better thats one of the things eliminated.

I hope you manage to get it going soon, will pop along to one of your rallys when I get chance

Regards,
Chris

 

That's what solved our problem, ECU and peripheral swap. I'm dead keen to know if it's something other than the ECU itself. Our symptoms were the same, one faint spark when you turn key for ignition, then no spark at all! Did you swap the ignition barrel and column too?

 

Thanks guys.
The ignition barrel is still the same.
The ECU is getting all the switched live 12v signals measured at each pin, so I don't suspect the ignition switch.
Bought another set of electronics (god bless ebay).
Also, trying to buy a polish power chip with immob defeat in. So that will be 4 complete sets of ecu/immob/key I will have.
Its been a while on this now, so I'm probably going to have to start back on the diagnosis right from the beginning again, in case I have missed something, or made a wrong assumption somewhere.
Fault finding on your own is sometimes a bad idea, as having someone to reality check what you are doing is really useful
Good job this car isn't my daily
Jon

 

Can't see that happening tbh. If that was the case, removing battery would lose coding too.

 

Interesting. All the first three sets of ecu/immob are from T plate cars. (all ABF's: 2 cordobas one ibiza) The immob box is all black (siemens 5wk4 7740)

The fourth ebay set has literally just arrived, and appears different. The key is a one piece thing without buttons, the pickup ring is slightly bigger and has smaller brown cable ends. The immob box is a siemens 5 wk4 678 and has brown face to it. The small immob outgoing 6 way connector will not fit my car. Looks like I need a plug with cable to splice it in. Drat.
I'm told in the ebay advert this set all works. First impressions is this is not the greatest 60 quid I have ever spent, due to the above.

My old RS232 vagcom laptop has finally died. Bought a generic USB to car cable. Which software should I buy to suit windows 7? Comments appreciated.
Jon