What to do next? Having a mare starting a Polo

[Louie Lungbubble 0]

Hello you lot. Would appreciate some advice please. I'm a thick person. :wave:

 

Nephew's got a mk3 1.0 polo and the bleeding thing refuses to start.

 

Last time it ran he said it was rough and losing power. Foot to the floor but still slowing.

Pulled over, engine off and restarted. Not 100% but got him home.

He changed plugs and seemed ok until a day or so later the same thing. Got it home, switched off, now there's no convincing the thing to fire up again.

I get a call to have a look as he knows nothing (but that's only marginally less than me)

 

Plugs are new but I changed them anyway along with dizzy cap & rotary arm, then swapped my leads off the Audi with his. Mine ran fine but his still a no-go.

It sometimes gives a half-hearted couple of chugs after cranking but never catches. Can smell petrol when giving it loads of pedal, so there's fuel flowing. Tested each lead with a plug onto the engine and all sparked.

 

That's the usual suspects. What's the next most likely culprit?

 

Thanking you muchly much for any suggestions.

Ian.

[Supercharged 2]

Likely to be the coil as it's mounted under the screen wash bottle so prone to corrosion or the hall sender on the dizzy - you might find that it's been knocked / come loose

[Louie Lungbubble 0]

Cheers Steve. Suspected the coil.

Hall sender (that's known as the knock sensor too isn't it?) Is that a full new dizzy mech, or replaceable part within it.

My early valver doesn't have one so not too familliar with the things. Ha ha :)

[davidwort 0]

no, the hall sender is on the dizzy and triggers the coil from the rotating rotor arm, most VW haynes manuals for VWs of this era cover testing hall senders.

[SamG40 0]

You can replace the hall sender but I believe they are about £80 and a new dizzy (exchange from VW) are about £125. There is a dizzy on ebay at the moment though I believe. My moneys on the coil though. I've had one fail before and so have a good few friends. They will give you a mk4 one now as they've replaced them.

[Purple Tom 0]

Sounds like the hall sender to me. I've had several Mk3's and I built the last one from the ground up with lots of suspension modifications etc so I've learned a thing or two about them over the years!

 

I did on FAQ over on Club Polo on how to change the hall sender if you're interested - http://www.clubpolo.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=91373

 

If you do need another dizzy and you want to eliminate the hall sender then I have a proper SPi distributor from a mk3 that has the correct trigger wheel for your nephews car. I don't want much for it as I obviously no longer have a Polo, if you're interested then let me know.

[Louie Lungbubble 0]

Thanks for the replies lads, and that's a top how-to you've linked to there Tom.

 

Think I'm gonna try the coil first. Failing that I'll more than likely take that whole dizzy off you Tom. It'll at least save me a job of swapping out the hall sender. My nephew's at uni in Chester which means he (and the car) are about 40 miles away, so the less work I have to do when I get down to it the better.

 

One more thing though, had a look on VagCat and it shows 2 coils. 1 & 1a here.

What's the difference? There's a few of both available on ebay.

[Purple Tom 0]

1a is purely an amplifier for use with a seperate coil - the likes of which you'd find on the earlier Polo's (mk1 and mk2).

 

The Mk2F (Mk3) uses a combined coil and amplifier (number 1) which is the one you'll need. They're standard throughout the range, so one from a 1043cc AAU engine right up to the 1272cc PY supercharged engine from the G40 will fit.

 

Let us know how you get on, if you need the dizzy just give me a shout :) Oh, and I'm glad you like the FAQ, took me a while :lol:

 

Tom

[Louie Lungbubble 0]

Cheers mate. Will do. :salute:

[Louie Lungbubble 0]

Bombed down to Chester after work yesterday and chucked the new coil on. First turn of the key it was away. :clap:

Nephew was made up (then promptly stung me for a tenner) ha ha

 

Appreciate the suggestions lads.

(Looks like I won't be needing the dizzy now Tom but cheers anyway mate) :)

[Purple Tom 0]

Awesome, I actually had exactly the same problem with my Corrado last sunday which turned out to be the coil, I was glad because the hall sender in the dizzy is actually defunct on the ADY engine because it has a crank position sensor instead :)

 

Glad its sorted anyway :clap: