I've had a Golf MK3 1.8 Auto dumped on me. Won't start. The starter motor is also shot, my dads just picked one up and on his way back. Unfortunately I only get about 10-20 seconds of cranking time before the starter motor seizes up and I have to wait til it cools down again. The car was at traffic, women driver so notices about as much as a brick and went to pull away and it was dead. I got there, flooded as anything, removed a plug, sure there was no spark and well I was wrong because the bare spark plug ignited a cylinder full of petrol, pretty amusing tbh. Anyway, yesterday after a couple of weeks I tried starting it, it started then all of a sudden bogged down and then the starter motor gave up. It turns over, got spark, got fuel and it stinks of fuel, it's deffo flooding itself I'm positive. Any ideas? The car is an SPi 1.8, has no ECU relay. Once the starter motor is sorted I can look deeper into it. I don't think it's an immobilizer fault. Cheers guys. EDIT: They had just sold the starter.
UPDATE: About 15 mins ago I got it started again. It ran for a while with me bliping the throttle, too much and it bogged down too little and it wanted to die. IT died once I got it started again same thing, it's bogging down. Baring in mind it was running in total for about 20 seconds. It's not the immobilizer. It's as if I need to rev it a bit to clear the bogging down issue, however as the starter is shot I only get one, maybe two attempts. Ideas? Cheers.
check the gearbox earth, could be flooding and poor starting are linked. if gearbox earth is poor on some the ecu will die and flood engine. also look under battery box as i think there are some earths under there too
OK cheers mate. I have tried connecting jump leads directly to the engine and starter but I will recheck. Cheers.
Right so I've spent today on it. New starter on it, turning over like crap then just stopped. Took the plugs out, cylinder one and two so full of petrol it's hydro locking. Took off the SPI wiring, turned it over with plugs out, fuel shooting everywhere but it didn't stop. "Ahh, injectors stuck open" Took off the top, the injector must have a screw at the top, somehow come loose, injector has lifted up, fuel pours EVERYWHERE. Screw has gone AWOL, no idea where that went I reckon it must be inside the engine now somewhere. Where do we reckon that is? Cylinder 1? Anyway, found an appropriate bolt, cut it to size job done, cleared the fuel out, had numerous dead battery charges and changes done. Starter motor still turns over slowly, never been quick but I'm thinking the cables to it have been burning out (which they have been smoking) so new positive and a new earth I reckon, 4AWG time. Got it going, the top of the TB was off, black cover exposing the naked SPi unit. It's running, like crap. I can hold it running with revs, otherwise it's running crap, possibly on three. But unfortunately oil light going mental as is beeping. Then I stop the car, get out and there is just fluid running all down the drive, I THINK it's water as the metal water pipe has rusted and when I dropped the engine it gave way. Unfortunately it sticks of fuel, so I'm not 100% sure. There is also oil pouring down the drive on top of said fluid. I'm going to drain the water out and start it just to see what it was, cause I thought it was fuel so I've just emptied an entire fire extinguisher (powder) all over the drive and that. So would it be running crap because the TB top is off? Cheers.
Seperate issue, but my other thread got locked: Big load of ****e with this car. Starter burned itself out because the cylinders hydrolocked with petrol. New starter, car fixed. However, with out the plugs in the car turns over fairly OK, not as quick as it should though. I placed two plugs back in the car and turned it over. It turned over slowly and then it started! LOL two plugs missing and still running. However it simply won't turn over with all the plugs in properly. The earth cable on the gearbox smokes after a while, it needs changing. However the starter motor gets extremely hot, could this still be a bad earth? Even though the starter is getting well hot? Cheers.
i would say so yes, try running a chunky earth from battery direct to one of the starter motor mounting bolts
I thank thy' Johnny. Tis the earths. Some cheap **** jumper leads from a Transit directly to a starter motor bolt and to the positive on the starter motor got it going. So tomorrow, I'll get two new leads from Halfords (because it's the ONLY place round here that does them and is in stock) one for the positive and one for the grounding. Question for the grounding though, the original location the nut has seized. I'm positive this is going to snap the stud straight off if I undo it, unless I heat it. I'm wondering though whether to just ground direct to a starter motor bolt and then maybe loop another from that bolt to one on the engine block somewhere. Is it a bad idea leaving the original earth on there? I'm wondering how I'm going to attach these to the battery terminals as they don't have anywhere to add them...... I may change the terminals or just place them under the battery terminal clamping points. Cheers all.
starter bolt would be just as good as the stock location, what I would do is have a go at undoing that nut. if it shears off, never mind. just remove the gearbox bolt and replace it with another from the scrappy. the gearbox wont fall out with just that bolt removed so its safe to take it out and replace edit: actually its an auto, so not sure where the earth would be? I assume its same as manual, located on a stud on the rearmost top gearbox->engine bolt yes?
OK thanks mate. Nah it's just a random stud on the gearbox. I'll do that then, I'll clean up the bolt and copper brush it. Cheers mate!
Right, this is long. New starter cables, DIRECT to the starter and battery, turning over slow. Plugs out fairly slow turning over but consistant. Engine spins by hand. Duff starter? Cheers.
Right this is a pain in the **** now. Got about a 5ers worth of fuel I put in, needle has moved a little. Nice big battery on the thing and it turns over. If I floor the throttle, it starts firing with the starter motor. It doesn't fire at all with the throttle not floored. Video (there are cars driving past it sounds like revving, it's not): http://tinypic.com/r/vz7tia/7 Any ideas? HT leads in the wrong place? Fuel problem, remembering it possibly ran out of fuel and it's at an angle on stands. Thanks.
ERRRRRR! Took out relay 167 (was gonna bridge it and it was clicking all the time while turning it over) and it's going! Admittedly sounding "hollow" and running on three or less cylinders but it works! WTH? It ran like ****, ran and stayed at 4K revs, oil buzzer came on and it died. Takes out fuel pump relay and it's running rough but running. Erm what the hell? Anyway, smoke started pluming from the engine bay and it smells like a hot oil smell like when you do a headgasket and smoke is coming off the exhaust manifold. Ideas? Cheers, this one has confused me, so I need a fuel pump relay then.......
Right, have you EVER heard of this one then? The oil was low, it's now full, it's extremely thin. Where the engine was FULL of petrol, it's all ran down into the oil somehow. The car won't run with the airbox pipe on, but will without, although VERY rough. It won't run with the fuel pump relay. I have however moved the car. What's happening, I'm sure it must be anyway, is it's running on the oil/petrol vapour! There is so much petrol in the oil (it STINKS of it) it's actually just running of that. AMAZING LOL!
I reckon you have got a duff temp sender or the TB is bust and continually spraying fuel. This is why the oil level is increasing and the oil is thin. Duff ecu can cause this too. Have seen a Citroen that filled itself up to the top of the cam cover with fuel before. New ecu and drain out 3 gallons of oil / petrol mix and it was fine.
What it was mate was the SPI injector is held on by a torx bolt. For some majorly unknown reason, this was missing, the injector had popped up and the fuel was pumping from the tank, straight into the throttle body. All that's fixed though. I'm wondering if it will be OK with an oil flush.......
Should be ok with an oil change then. The breathers may still be full of fuel though, so it may still take a little while to clear as it warms up. The Citroen I mentioned took a good drive up the road to burn off all the oil residue in the exhaust. The cat and lambda both survived strangely enough.
make sure the earths are tip top tbh and get new oil in there the ecu can spaz with bad earths. also there is a throttle body boot. make sure thats not split
