-HELP!!- No start from cold - again, grrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!

[ross.taylor 0]

Tried to start my 1.8 16V last night and no joy :evil:

 

Had probs with starting about a year ago, and had the ignition switch replaced and it was all sorted.

 

But recently (over last month or so) if I leave the car for more than a day or two its a pig to start. Its about 10 days since I last started it. [Only been driving once or twice on short trips in town during the week and long mway journeys most weekends.]

 

Last night: The starter turns quite happily, and it fired once (literally one spark) in about 20 tries. Although once or twice it sounded like it tried to fire when I turned the ignition off after a start attempt; just a small hicup when turning the key back. :( :(

 

Dont know if its related, but a few weeks ago, I managed to start from cold drove the mile or so to the garage (V low on fuel), filled up and then struggled to start at the garage and stalled twice within the next mile of town driving, had to keep the revs well up to keep it going.

 

I've seen posts about the choke, a sensor thingy and other reasons why it might not be starting. Anyone think that they know what aplies to me?

[chuck 0]

Check for both spark and fuel (take a lead off and use a dummy plug to check for spark)(take an injector out to check for fuel - it simply pops out).

 

Check the cold start valve (on the end of the rail on the front of the inlet manifold)is working (should fire fuel for about 10 seconds when cold), you'll need to unbolt it to do this, but its not difficult. It shouldn't fire when hot.

 

 

If there's no spark (or a single spark followed by nothing) it could be the hall sender. Check the 3 (?) pin connector on the side of the distributor is not loose.

[Riki 0]

If its not getting fuel the feed pipe to your fuel distibutor may be blocked. The main banjo nut has a small filter inside it. You may have dragged up some dirt running it low on fuel. Might be worth changing the fuel filter too. The hall senders are pretty prone to packing up due to oil contamination. I think the dealers do a sender pack for the dizzy so you can repair it.

[chuck 0]

yea, take the dizzy cap off and there shouldn't be any oil in there. I replaced the whole dizzy recently,and as I remember it was only marginally more expensive from Euro Car Parts (on an exchange basis) than the VW repair kit, and a whole lot less hassle.