Temperamental Starting Problem (1.6 Gti)

[Juz 0]

i've done about 1000 miles on the 205 1.6 gti since i bought her and in that time it's always started first time and never exhibited any mechanical problems. then last night it had been sat for about 8 days without being started or run (it was up on axle stands whilst i had the wheels refurbed). i came to start it and it wouldn't catch.

 

i spent ages trying to start it, with just the ignition and then also with the throttle too but it just keep turning over and never even sounded like catching. i decided by this point i'd flooded it so left it 30 mins, came back and tried again just with a turn of the key and no throttle, it fired up instantly. i gently revved it a little around 2000 revs for a bit and let it return to idle, then revved a bit higher to about 3500-4000 but then when i let it return to idle the engine cut out, and wouldn't start again. i decided to leave it for the night and that i would call green flag out today to look at it.

 

then this afternoon i came to try it again, and this time it started first time again and when i revved it, seemed fine. at this point i thought maybe it was just playing up last night because it hadn't been run for over a week and it had recovered now. but then i went for a good drive about 45 minutes on the b roads, parked up, returned to the car about 3 hours later and this time it started but took a few seconds to catch, and when it did catch it was really hesitant for a couple of seconds like a sort of "is it going to start or conk out????" moment. i drove home 45 mins again then got back and left the car on the bottom of the drive. came back to it 10 minutes later to pull onto the drive and once again it was really hesitant to start, taking 4-5 seconds to catch and not sounding as though it was particularly happy about it!

 

i'm no mechanic but what i can tell is that the electrics seem fine... i can hear the starter motor turning the engine over and it sounds consistent and strong, and last night after trying to start it a few times i could smell the fuel when it flooded so i'm pretty sure the injectors were also be firing ok. this lead me to think maybe the spark plugs or the leads could be breaking down? but once the engine is running it is sweet, revs freely, absolutely screams it's way from 3500-7500 revs, nice smooth idle, so i would have assumed if the spark wasn't strong this would have been more a problem at high revs than just starting up, which is the opposite of what i'm experiencing.

 

so does anybody have any suggestions as to what could be causing this please? like i say i'm not very mechanically minded but i'm willing to have a go at fixing most things and if this sounds like something serious i'll take it to the garage... but thought i'd best check with you experts first! sorry for the essay by the way but i wanted to describe everything in detail so it's clear!

[richard 0]

Something similar happened to me last night.

 

Im sure its the tachy relay on mine...(pulled it out as i was driving along and then reseated it) engine all of a sudden cam back to life.

 

Definitely worth checking out, you'll find scorch marks on the plastic if this is the case (most of the time)

 

if you do a search for the tachymetric relay you'll find a host of problems this small box causes. You'll find it under the right hand side of the dash by the ECU.(in the small cubby hole area)

 

Just a thought.

[Juz 0]

thanks for the suggestion richard. as it turned out when i next went to start the car yesterday it refused to start at all once again, so this time i just called green flag who diagnosed it as a fuel injection issue (fuel getting to rail but not into cylinder head apparantly they said?) and towed it to my regular garage. anyway he only needed 30 mins with it adjusted the distributor timing or something (i have no idea what that means and my little bro collected the car so it's 2nd hand info ) and it starts a good 'un again now. idle is for some reason higher than before (about 1500 instead of 1100) but i can live with that.