So Close But So Far. Or Is It Just A Bit Cold? Start, Dammit!

[Lynden 2]

Hi all,

 

Running out of ideas here! My 1988 1.9 GTI just won't start today. It took me about three hours of fiddling to get it started the other day, but once running and up to temperature it was fine. It hasn't been running great recently, so I adjusted the timing using the "advance until it just starts pinking then back off a bit" method, and also did some things that I've been meaning to do for ages like adjust the throttle stop position, throttle switch and idle. Got it running and idling just right - back to being a real joy to drive as it should be.

 

I then left it for about four hours and then went out to start it - temperature gauge hadn't gone all the way to the bottom - half way between bottom and the first interval - and it started straightaway and settled to a good idle (about 1000rpm). No problem.

 

Then I left it for the last two days and now cannot get it started at all. It's getting a spark (although swapped the rotor arm as the current one was looking pretty knackered), and there's fuel getting there ok - I think I flooded it a couple of times, but left for over an hour between goes, so should have recovered from that.

 

The engine temperature sensor (the one with blue plug under the dizzy) seems ok - reading about 4kohms when cold and 300 when warm - I think that should be ok. I think the SAD is working ok as I tested it a few weeks back by squeezing the pipe coming out of it a few seconds after starting the car and the engine faltered. But I haven't tested it in the last couple of days.

 

I went through the Haynes manual doing the system checks - generally ok, but I couldn't seem to manage to get the 9V on the AFM connector (wire 18A I think) that it is looking for. But I got 10V on the wire going into the SAD and almost zero resistance between that wire on the SAD and the 18A AFD wire, so I think that must be ok and I wasn't getting a good connection when testing the AFD wire by itself. But surely if the engine was running well when warm then the AFD must be working ok? I've recently cleaned out the AFD and the flap moves smoothly.

 

It has been a bit cold, so I've tried WD40 on the dizzy cap, coil and leads. This is the same car as in this post http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?showtopic=128539 where I had made the schoolboy error of jumpstarting it with the leads the wrong way around, so I'm wondering if there's some residual electrical problem or if something in the ECU that deals with the cold is knackered. I don't know if that is possible.

 

In the past it's been possible to encourage it to start by advancing the timing by turning the dizzy towards the bulkhead as far as it would go - it has struggled into life but then run horribly until warm. I really don't think doing this is right! And I did try this today - in fact tried slowly turning the dizzy while the engine was being cranked in case it would catch somewhere, but no.

 

I've had a look at other similar posts and it seems like the SAD might be a culprit, but I had thought that was working ok...

 

Any thoughts? I'm in North London in case there's any knowledgable folk around.

 

Cheers

 

Lynden

[Lynden 2]

ah - turned out to be I hadn't reseated the engine temperature gauge connector properly. Off we go!