scott1980

it's a 1995 2.0 16v

Thought that was just on VR6's or am I just being thick :) ...maybe why the ignition bypass didnt do anything...I didn't have the key in ?! :scratch:

Found and checked those fuses today , 2x 3A , 1x 10A and a 15A ...awkward little B******s to get out too ! found another relay , upside down 31 , a big bugger ...this is the fan overrun relay? amazing what you can find with a little determination , sat on your arse on a dark and frosty road ! haha :) ! Theres two behind the glovebox where the immobiliser is , think these are ABS relays , grey one and a black one , 179 and summat else I think . Immobiliser arms and disarms , locks unlocks etc. Out of interest and probably completely unrelated , what is the black circle with a thick black wire surrounding the barrel (where the key goes in)

My first thought was the immobiliser , exactly the same syptoms when the connector was being tricky , quite possibly the immobiliser itself ...got all diagrams for immobiliser , and Corrado manual (bentley) and haynes passat manual ... its been fairly "wet" with condensation in the car recently , maybe a bit of a sticky relay like you say ...everything else works , motor turns over , blowers etc , but no elec windows . Its a total closure doofer , so presumably its cutting power to those too ? Tempted to take the immobiliser itself out and take a look ..have to wait till weekend tho , cant be doing with dribbling with the torch in my mouth anymore !!!! haha Its getting time to seek professional help like u say , im not covered by AA but have spoken to a local auto leccy place , who said leave it with them for a "couple of days " !!! At least I can tell whoever does work on it what I have already eliminated .

In the past couple of days ive tried booster leads onto my battery ... checked good earth to body and I made a lead to bypass the ignition switch as per the photo , which had no effect , was expecting the starter to turn (as it does with the key) when i touched the two remaining spade connectors..but nothing , still no LED's either. So today , torch in mouth , I tested the resistance of the coil as per the haynes manual for 9A engines (passat) ... connections 1-15 (primary winding) showed 0 ohms , should be 0.6-0.8 ohms and connections 4-15 showed 6.5 ohms which was correct...possibly a buggered ignition coil ?? would this prevent my dash LED's from lighting and car starting ? Always thought the Dash LED's looked a bit naff but I've never missed them so much :(

Excellent , should be able to knock one of those up at work if I get a min (and we've got some suitable wire in) Even if I eliminate certain things it's all progress , and could save time and money should I have to take it to a professional (I'd much much rather do anything myself tho)

Yeah pal , both quite firm , I can turn the positive terminal with a bit of a shove though ...and come to think of it , its a tad greasy somehow . The pile of receipts I got with the car shows about 4 battery purchases in about 6 years (maybe less) Im getting 12v from the battery tho , but on full lock my PAS belt squealed a bit , this is the same belt for the alternator ? .....my head is hurting now haha :bonk:

Cheers guys , any info is much appreciated ...It's doing my tits in !! Fine for months then *ping* ..gone !! why do i have all other power , and why did it suddenly just go ?! Is there a quick way to test the switch other than strip all the column down ,maybe rub 2 wires together like they do in films haha ... I'm not bad with tinkering wi stuff but i'm no Aircraft Engineer :silly: Is it essential to take the steering wheel an stuff off ? I can't get away from thinking it's the immobiliser , EXACTLY the same symptoms as last time , the connector pin at fault was the earth connection for the immobiliser controller ... same thing , just died and wouldn't come back , but i'm 99.9 % sure its not the connector ( been ok for 2 months ) Ill try the switch ( somehow ) tomorrow , in the 30 mins of dusk light after work ......couldn't break down in summer :bad-words:

Possibly yeah , never had any trouble starting before , apart from the immobiliser ... come to mention it , when i press the ignition barrel hole ( metal bit where the key goes ) even without a key in it , my radio powers up ! HA ...done that for a while too ! Did yours turn over when you turned the key ? Its doin my nut in because it's EXACTLY the same thing happening as when the connector was goosed

Its head scratching time again .... well ... yesterday after a spell of "being good" ( had an odd problem recently posted "intermittent death" on here )it died completely , a flutter of revs which dipped very low when idle , so i revved it a little , then the revs fell off and it died. But now it wont start , and theres no dash LED's on when i turn the ignition . I had a similar problem with identical symptoms a while back and i found it was a dodgy connector on the immobiliser . Im fairly sure its not the connector , but maybe the immobiliser is goosed completely....I get all power , it turns over , head lights , blower etc ... no leccy windows, fuel pump prime or dash LED's and it wont start . What can I check before assuming it's the immobiliser and paying an autoleccy to rip the ******* out (or bypass it) I've reseated , tapped , opened and checked all the relays ...SEEM fine , checked all fuses too oh ye , its a 16v 9a ....hopefully someone can point me in the right direction

well ... this may be unrelated , so i'll probably repost anyway .... but yesterday , after weeks of not "doing it" ... it died completely , a flutter of revs , dipping very low , so i revved it a little , then the revs fell off and it died. But now it wont start , and theres no dash LED's on when i turn the ignition . I had a similar problem with identical symptoms a while back and i found it was a dodgy connector on the immobiliser . Im fairly sure its not the connector , but maybe the immobiliser is goosed completely....I get all power , it turns over , lights , blower etc ... no leccy windows or dash LED's and it wont start

I know the feeling , scary when it goes..I'm driving it with my foot hovering over the clutch just in case it dies :eek: It was quite "lumpy" this morning and at one point the rev needle shot way up then down again , quickly , twice , with no real change in engine revs ( again just lurched a bit ). Aaaah , that would explain the sudden loss , and , it's in the distributor . Might just start there and replace the bugger , was going to change plugs - leads - cap ( looked at the points yesterday and they were fairly pitted ) It's a temperamental bitch at the minute and hard to trust when driving , cleaned points and rotor arm yesterday , drove home , went back out later on and it started and died instantly .. a wiggle of the leads and away I went ( coincidence possibly ..theres no tracking ) It SOUNDS fairly simple and relatively inexpensive to cure , thanks for your help chaps i'll get it sorted soon enough :thumbleft:

Hall sender ... does that have something to do with stretching a spring in the cap ? And come to think of it , I haven't heard the usual sort of *buzz* when i turn the ignition on , just before starting (when it dies then tries) . If it was the hall sender would it cut out completely or splutter and die ? Mine just GOES and I get that "oh ****" feeling ! The lurching is also a bit of squeaky bum time ! I mainly do short journeys too , so I would say that the problem has occured from 1 minute to 10 minutes of driving , and was fairly hot when the massive ( and it was bloody massive ) backfire / lurch happened .... makes me think the massive backfire was fuel being sent but not ignited due to a problem in the cap like u said ? combination of both maybe ?

My 2.0 16v 9a has decided to start messing me about...the swine ! It's cut out on me a couple of times (once on a roundabout) and is starting to get on my tits a bit (still love it though !) The first time it cut out was after about a minute of driving , on a roundabout , with the clutch in , and it just died to nothing without a lurch or a splutter...the revs went and all my lights on my dash came on (as if i'd just turned the ignition on). I tried about 3 times to start it but it wouldn't have it , luckily someone gave me a push and i bumped it and off i went . I just crossed my fingers and put it down to being "weird" . This was last week .. So today , under slightly different conditions 30 mph 4th gear...same happened...no revs , all the lights , so I coasted into a bus stop and waited about 2 minutes..started fine and pulled away. Partly in anger , i planted my foot in first gear and at about 4500 revs it lurched like fook , revs dropped to almost nothing so i quickly dipped the clutch and apologised to her and drove carefully to Currys ( my telly has broke ..another sob story ) Going back home I give it some , to see if it did it again ( I know ...) and going uphill in third (not accelerating hard) there was a mahoosive backfire , the revs dropped but before I could do anything it picked back up and off home i went ! I should add that 1) It has become slightly lumpy when not accelerating , lurching a little at low revs . 2) In summer my immobiliser ( Serpi Star ) connector had a dodgy connection and was cutting the engine and ignition . I don't think its this because the ignition light remain on when it dies. I'm far from being an expert , and like most Corrado owners ( I think ) would like to be able to do anything that needs doing myself , more so for satisfaction than cost cutting. Could it be a fuelling problem , dodgy pump ,filter , clogged injectors ? I intend to treat it to some Redex to try and solve the lumpy drive , and start there..but if there's something more sinister going on then i'd prefer it not to go bang completely !!:scratch: ---------- Post added at 8:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 7:59 PM ---------- AND ...occasionally when starting up it splutters a bit , think thats about it

Sound , that ! just been to get an oil filter from a local supplier (BBC Autofactors) .. I got the filter for £3.20 (FRAM) but the oil was quoted at £26 !! To be honest it'll be the first time i've changed the oil it's just done over 132k and i've only done 600 miles of that , I assured the previous owner i'd look after it hence why i'm being a bit anal about the oil ! :geek:

Thanks , never even considered supermarkets "own" brand , probably made by leading manufacturers anyway eh ( like tesco's value weetabix ) !! :grin:

Oh aye ! Its a '95 2.0 16v . Yeah it's 10/40 , seems like a pretty good deal at £17.50 :-)

Its about time i treated her to an oil change , halfords have got magnatec (4 litres) on offer for £18 . I was advised by the previous owner that castrol GTX was her preferred tipple , should i save myself a few quid and get the magnatec ?

Cheers guys , I've sorted it (temporarily).. It was a dodgy pin on the connector for the immobiliser ! It's a 24 way connector , like a power connector for a PC motherboard , and one of the pins inside the male part was mashed in and looks like it was probably done on installation. The glovebox comes pretty damn close to the motherboard and could have easliy bashed it a little when it was being put back in ...It's a tight bugger ! Iv'e been through the pile of receipts I got with it and it was installed in January ...1996 !! Just my luck that it has started to act up now !! ha . Iv'e bent the pin inwards a little and it will be fine until i get another connector ( £2 off ebay :thumbleft: )

MUCH HEAD SCRATCHING ! It died after pressing the horn !! This might seem like a wierd one....and take a whle to decribe but... I've had my 95 2.0 16v on the road for just over a week and all has been fine until today! The alarm+immobiliser which was fitted (serpi star GR420) when I bought it has worked fine , but only sounded, or chirped intermittently when arming / disarming. So today i unplugged the sounder module , sprayed liberally with electrosolve electrical cleaner , let dry and re-fitted..the alarm and siren worked fine , i drove it home from work then back again without problem. Leaving work I pomped at a colleague and...THE ENGINE CUT OUT !! The electrics worked fine , cd , windows , etc. but , when I turned the ignition I didnt get my dash LED's lit up and it wouldn't start ! The immobiliser seemed to arm / disarm , lock / unlock my car but I couldn't start it !! I checked all fuses and relays on the drivers side and all appeared to be sat correctly and the fuses were fine , I could hear a clicking from the passenger side in the engine bay so i removed the glovebox to find the immobiliser itself , along with two more relays #179 and #79 plus two 30A fuses ...I checked that the relays were sat correctly ( they are hanging "loose" possibly to make room for the Immobiliser ) #79 looked to be slightly "out" so i gave it a squeeze in its holder ..turned the key and it started !!! Drove it home , checked horn worked with engine on etc. and all appeared fine so i put the fuse cover and glovebox back thinking it was a cured faulty connection with the relay , left it half an hour or so , went to pick my girlfriend up , pomped outside her house and.....yep... it died !! Its started twice since then , after disconnecting and reconnecting the relays , but this may just be coincidence ? The last time it started it ran for approx 10 seconds then died on its own All I get when i turn the key is a click from the engine bay , no dash LED's . It turns over but thats it ! Is it a coincidence with the relays ?( #79 and #179 are apparently ABS related ) , Is it a fault with the Immobiliser ? ( did i somehow damage it cleaning the siren ) Any help would be great , I apologise for the essay but I wanted to give as accurate a description as possible . I would really love to be able to sort this myself as I can't bear the thought of TOWING it to an auto electrician / garage

This might seem like a wierd one....and take a whle to decribe but... I've had my 95 2.0 16v on the road for just over a week and all has been fine until today! The alarm+immobiliser which was fitted (serpi star GR420) when I bought it has worked fine , but only sounded, or chirped intermittently when arming / disarming. So today i unplugged the sounder module , sprayed liberally with electrosolve electrical cleaner , let dry and re-fitted..the alarm and siren worked fine , i drove it home from work then back again without problem. Leaving work I pomped at a colleague and...THE ENGINE CUT OUT !! :scratch: The electrics worked fine , cd , windows , etc. but , when I turned the ignition I didnt get my dash LED's lit up and it wouldn't start ! The immobiliser seemed to arm / disarm , lock / unlock my car but I couldn't start it !! I checked all fuses and relays on the drivers side and all appeared to be sat correctly and the fuses were fine , I could hear a clicking from the passenger side in the engine bay so i removed the glovebox to find the immobiliser itself , along with two more relays #179 and #79 plus two 30A fuses ...I checked that the relays were sat correctly ( they are hanging "loose" possibly to make room for the Immobiliser ) #79 looked to be slightly "out" so i gave it a squeeze in its holder ..turned the key and it started !!! Drove it home , checked horn worked with engine on etc. and all appeared fine so i put the fuse cover and glovebox back thinking it was a cured faulty connection with the relay , left it half an hour or so , went to pick my girlfriend up , pomped outside her house and.....yep... it died !! Its started twice since then , after disconnecting and reconnecting the relays , but this may just be coincidence ? The last time it started it ran for approx 10 seconds then died on its own :scratch: All I get when i turn the key is a click from the engine bay , no dash LED's . It turns over but thats it ! Is it a coincidence with the relays ?( #79 and #179 are apparently ABS related ) , Is it a fault with the Immobiliser ? ( did i somehow damage it cleaning the siren ) Any help would be great , I apologise for the essay but I wanted to give as accurate a description as possible . I would really love to be able to sort this myself as I can't bear the thought of TOWING it to an auto electrician / garage

Hi , Are the heating controls still availableand are they the later dial ones ?

Ive fixed it ! :dance: ... I took the valve off and tried my luck blasting some isopropanol into it and manually toggling the valve , let it dry and stuck it back on . Started and idled juuuuuuust fine :thumbleft: thats made my week ,Thanks for your help guys.

Ive been under the bonnet and cant seem to see any split / undone hoses or hear any hisses when it dies . I tested the idle switch and thats fine and my friend assures me theres no clicks or buzzes on the ISV when i turn the ignition on ...looks like its shagged ?? In that case how much would you want for yours CazzaVR ? Also , the one currently on is a Siemens unit...seems odd to me...looks out of place (for some reason) :scratch: Im sure come to think of it in the pile of receipts for the car there was one for work done for an "Idling issue"

Sorry yeah forgot to mention that :-/ its a 2.0 16v , I have a volkswagen factory repair manual on CD , its fairly detailed (1060 pages) and shows an Idle stabilizer valve , is this it ? Also , the engine keeps steady revs with the throttle ,a held light touch of the pedal will keep it at 900 revs, could I get away with altering the throttle ?? ....like I say , i'm a novice :scratch: