mysterious trouble starting

[brent4727]

I have owned my jetti Tdi sportwagon for about a year and have about 34700 miles. This morning, I went out to start the car to go to work, the engine turned over, ran very rough for about 2 seconds, then quit. I tried restarting and the starter did not turn over. Tried a few more times and eventually got the vehicle started. No warning lights or error messages of any kind. It seemed as if the battery did not have enough power to to turn that starter over, or that their was so much compression that the started could not turn it over. In my effort to get it started, it would run for a few seconds and then quit. Eventually I got it started and I drove my 40 miles to work. Still no check engine lights and once it was running it seemed ok. After getting to work I have restarted the vehicle since and it seems fine. I have scheduled a service to get this checked out so hopefully the dealer can get this resolved. Has anyone ever expereinced this? Can you provide any info I can give the dealer to hel them get this taken care of? Anything would be helpful. Tx Brent

[bdisco]

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=302863

^Please see this massive thread.

[golfTDI1]

hmm...without actually being there when this happened its hard to speculate. I'm thinking two possibles:

Maybe an iced/thawed inter-cooler maybe hydro-locked it without causing obvious damage?

Or it may be possible that the immobilizer could have been to blame for the no crank and stall scenario. Anything light up on the dashboard that normally doesn't during this?

Anyone else think it could be the immobilizer, or would you rule that out?

[golfTDI1]

bdisco posted while I was typing...yeah iced/thawed intercooler strong possibility...I'd look into it. You're lucky the engine runs, but there was for sure some sort of internal damage

[Keithuk]

So it did turn over and start initially so it wasn't hydrolicking from ice of the intercooler. What was the ambient air temp this morning where you live?

I've never timed it with a stop watch but an immobilizer on will let it start for about a second then cut out. You can start it again for another second then it cuts out.

You say there was no engine check or immobilizer lights on.

As golfTDI1 says it difficult to diagnose without being there.

[brent4727]

Originally Posted by Keithuk

So it did turn over and start initially so it wasn't hydrolicking from ice of the intercooler. What was the ambient air temp this morning where you live?

I've never timed it with a stop watch but an immobilizer on will let it start for about a second then cut out. You can start it again for another second then it cuts out.

You say there was no engine check or immobilizer lights on.

As golfTDI1 says it difficult to diagnose without being there.

The temp was about 30 degrees and there was no warning lights of any kind. I have printed the thread from bdisco and will take it with me to the dealer this coming saturday. Thanks for all the replies, I really appreciate it.

[golfTDI1]

oh nuts...I just tried to start my car to go get some DOT4 brake fluid among other things and do some food shopping. brent4727's problem pretty much happened to me:

1. Started the car, ran for abt 3 or 4 seconds (smoothly though) and just stopped abruptly, as if I had killed the key. All dash lights died too and then came back to life, radio clicked through the CDs and phone disconnected and reconnected.

2. I waited abt 10 minutes before starting again hoping that if it was I "hydro-lock" type issue that some of the pressure might dissipate, though I know this is unlikely. Tried to start, did about 3 chugs only and stopped, I released the key.

3. Tried getting the hose to the intake off to see what I could see...that was not possible without getting more tools and really digging in...im not prepared for this now.

4. Almost 15 minutes after the last attempt I tried starting again, about 4 chugs (seemed a little slow too) was all I could get. I immediately tried the key again and barely got 1 chug.

5. Tested the battery voltage: 12volts

6. Now, I'm waiting for the laptop to charge :/ so that I can do an auto-scan with VCDS. If depending what I see or don't see will determine where I go from there, but this looks like its going to result in a phone call to a tow truck and my VW dealership, I cringe at having to bring this car back to the dealer for the first time...I was hoping for it to go a lifetime without it seeing the inside of that shop :/

[brent4727]

Weird, I am not knowledgable enough to offer any assistance, but I will post what my dealer says and would appreciate if you do the same.

[Keithuk]

Originally Posted by brent4727

The temp was about 30 degrees

30F thats cool but I wouldn't have thought the intercooler was frozen as I've said.

And golfTDI1 has had the same problem, strange two the same in one day.

12v is low for terminal voltage.

[golfTDI1]

Well I just had it towed to the dealer :/ , we'll see what they say. Ill update this post as necessary...