205 Turbo Ran Like Rubbish And Refused To Start.... Now Will Not Start

[grantley1988 1]

Well here is the story.

 

Drove my car to work this morning, started fine drove fine....

Finished work, turned the key and nothing. Dead as a door nail!

Eventually kicked into life after a big bump star (by a passing woman )

 

Then the car ran like s*it. Sounded very lumpy and did not want to rev and was popping and banging! Turbo did not want to boost and i wanted to cry!

After driving the car for 15mins it started to run better and now its running like it should but will not start!!!

 

Before the car would start fine but would not start above 165 degrees, you just had to let it cool until it was under 165 then it would fire straight away.

I always use tesco 99 fuel, but yesterday i was very busy and in a rush and put £20 worth of v power in.

 

Now do you guys no what the problem could be?

 

Firstly why did it run like s*it for 15mins and is now fine?

Could i have had crap in the fuel?

 

Secondly why is the car dead?

The battery is on charge so hopefully will start after being charged overnight, i doubt it though!

The battery is 2-3months old so is under warranty. Do you think its the battery?

 

Why have these two problems happend at the same time and what do you reckon i should do?

 

Hope you guys can help im mega stressed right now!

[Anthony 1,003]

A failed/dying alternator leading to a flat battery would cause similar symptoms - not enough power to turn the starter, and running very rough and unwilling to rev. If it is an alternator that's dying, it might be providing a very small amount of charge, or charging intermittently, which eventually gave the battery enough juice to allow it to run properly.

 

If it starts and runs with a charged battery, I'd check the output voltage from the alternator as a first step and go from there.

 

Bad earth to the gearbox again could cause similar issues, as both the starter and engine management are earthed to the battery through that.

 

Of course, it could just be a coincidence that the starter has given up at the same time it started running rough, especially if the starter has been misbehaving when hot for a while now (assuming that's what you mean when you say it won't start when hot?)

[dcc 855]

have you had a look at the alternator to check what its charging at? iirc, it needs to be 13.5, anything under is just useless.

 

as for not wanting to start, if there is no charge in batter it wont want to start, but after it had been running the alt. would have charged enough to run accessories, but not enough for the starter? or does it turn over on the starter just not kick into life?

[kyepan 291]

I would hazard a guess that your battery has died, probably to be closely followed by your alternator.

 

When the battery is very flat, it will mostly be running off the alternator, which is why as the battery charged it smoothed out the voltage and ran correctly.

 

Hot start is probably down to the starter solenoid wire on the starter / multiplug, search on this and you can run a dedicated wire straight from the fuse board to the starter.

 

 

so you have two problems, battery, solenoid wire for the starter.

 

You can check the battery for health, and probe the voltage at the solenoid wire to check it.

[pip470 61]

165 degrees? I hope thats Fahrenheit but I thought most gauges were in degrees centigrade.

[grantley1988 1]

Thanks for the help guys. Looks like its the alternator then. Took the battery to the shop and they said its more than fine! Im going to get a new starter aswell.

I assume they are the same as a 1.9gti and will fit my 406 turbo lump?

[JoshGti 8]

You ideally want to look for a thinner bodied valeo unit, they fit (someone correct me if im wrong) all be3 gearboxed cars so both the 205 and the 406, the 406 model starter is likely to be the thinner bodied one.