Click Click Start Problem

[Pugdaddy 0]

Hi

Having had a gremlin free 1.6 GTi for 13 years now (not main car but pride and joy), my pug has finally succumbed to the clicking starter problem. I stupidly replaced the what I thought ws ageing starter motor only to find I've still got the problem with the new one. That teaches you for not doing your research on this website first!

 

Lesson learnt. I've now read a lot around this common problem and not being as mechanically minded as most of you I need some advice and opinion.

 

I've established that the starter motor works everytime when I run a wire direct from solenoid to battery. That elimates risk of two dodgy starter motors.

 

I've bypassed the brown multiplug in the engine bay and that's made no difference.

 

When I try to start normal way using existing wiring from the ignition, it either clicks or starts. I.E. it always clicks and never misses a click. My first question therefore, does that mean there is always a current being supplied (even if not enough to start everytime) and therefore the Ignition Barrel is not at fault? If not, is there a way of proving that the problem is either ignition barrel or wiring? I've also read some people's fault lying with immobilisers. Same question, does the click everytime eliminate immobiliser as cause of problem?

 

Now onto wiring options (which I haven't done yet but the car is ready with fuse board out, panels off etc.). I've observed that a darker blue wire (46b) goes from slot E on the fuse board to the brown multiplug near the steering column. This and the fuse board all look in very good condition so I wouldn't have thought were problematic. Then a paler blue wire goes from the other side of the brown multiplug through the bulkhead all the way to the solenoid (also 46b if I remember rightly). Near and above the alternator the wire has a junction where 3 thin pale blue wires meet the thick one. One, 46c, heads towards the front of the car, the other two head back towards the interior. Do the two go to tachy relay and ECU? Not sure where the other one goes?

 

Now I like the idea and have all the stuff ready to try the piggback wiring option. What I'm confused about is: where should the piggyback wiring go to? Some say, solenoid to brown multiplug near steering column. Others say all the way to fuse board or orange wire of ignition barrel or ignition barrel starter lead? Would appreciate thoughts here. I'm also nervous how this impacts on the role of the 3 small wires, to tachy etc. Can you put in the one long wire, fix the problem and not mess up what wire 46c etc do?

 

I'm not completely adverse to the relay switch solution but would rather find an easier wiring solution first (not easy for me ) and be sure the problem doesn't lie elsewhere, e.g barrel.

 

Sorry for the long post - you may have guessed I'm a lot older than most GTi owners so I put my rambling down to age!

 

Hope you can help. Many thanks.

 

PS. I don't have a multimeter so can't check voltages.

[welshpug 1,657]

step one, buy multimeter, they're cheap enough!

 

you are on the right lines though, personally i would only replace the length that goes to the solenois itself, the section inside the car should be fine, but checkign the voltage drop along here will soon tell.

Edited July 30, 2009 by welshpug

[trialster 0]

two words...

 

bad earth

 

take off you'r engine earth lead, check that it's in good nick, clean up all mating surfaces and refit - most definitely something to try, and if it doesn't solve the problem it's atleast eliminated as a cause.

 

Edited July 30, 2009 by trialster

[Pugdaddy 0]

Thanks Welshpug. Just to be clear, are you saying replace wiring from brownplug to solenoid or piggy back the same section? If piggybacking, that makes no difference to the small wires spliced in?

 

Will also check and clean earth.

[welshpug 1,657]

there's no point in piggybacking, just makes for a messy engine bay by having redundant wires there, use a decent section of wire soldered in and heatshrink in the relevant joins (bypass the brown multiplug in the engine bay if its present)

 

also check the yellow power cable from the battery live terminal to the shunt box on the slam panel, this can cause a voltage drop to the whole car causing similar issues.

[Pugdaddy 0]

OK, many thanks.

 

The only mod I've made is K&N filter and that meant moving the shunt box to get the new cone filter in. That could have disturbed things so will check there too.

[ALEX 98 1 Cars]

Try this, It fixed mine.

Inside the right hand drivers pocket on the dash under the ECU there's 2 or three multi plugs clipped to the side plastic behind the right side of the pocket.

2 of those multi plugs go to the ignition barrel (possibly through a grey plastic sleeve).

All I did was unplug them and plug them back in again a couple of times to re-seat the contacts to try and solve the problem.. And it did!! :-o

I had the same problem for years, and changed almost everything but never thought it could be what it was.

 

The problem is a slight intemittent voltage drop to the solenoid feed wire, luckily mine was in the ignition barrel connector which is easy to access, so worth a try first IMO.

If not there's a topic I'll find for you I started about it, as there's a few other solutions on it too I didn't need to try.

 

 

click me!

Edited July 31, 2009 by ALEX