Wont start

Oh dear, I cant make head or tail of forum data!  I have a 1990 cabrio, and until yesterday required two starts before she started up.  Last night after watching King Kong (great movie) came out my mate started her up to no avail.  Each time it seams that she'd start up but the engine fails to catch!  Any1 with any ideas why this might be?   The RAC man says it could be something blocking the fuel line! As its christmas no garages are open…..So I guess I ll have to stay home….this christmas.    I only got the thing serviced last friday!  Could the garage have changed something in the car? The first time I took the car there for a cambelt change, I had to pay for a "leak" from the rear break drum that was "serious".  Hmm, can garages in london be trusted?   

Also the RAC man didnt seem all that keen to help diagnose the problem, he just wanted to get us home, so put the car onto his lorry and dumped the car at home!  Phoned garage today and left a msg.   

Read some forum stuff but none of it seems to apply to me.  I ve had the car 7 months and it always seemd hard to start, that is turn the key, about 2 times before it starts.   Now it just dosent. The engine turns but it dosent catch and just dies.   Any ideas?

take the spark plugs out and see if there wet from fuel and also check what the spark is like.

thatll give us abit mor to go on  :wink:

As Andunp says, you need to check you are getting fuel and a spark. If theres no spark at the spark plugs you need to check if there is a spark at the coil. Timing and compression are also essential to the engine running so you could check those, although if the fault occurred suddenly it's less likely to be either of these.

Could the garage have changed something in the car? The first time I took the car there for a cambelt change, I had to pay for a "leak" from the rear break drum that was "serious". Hmm, can garages in london be trusted?

Did they change the spark plugs? may be faulty/poor connection? A leak from the reatrbrake cylinder or any braking component is always serious so they were right to fix it.

Is it a GTI? Leaky injectors can cause poor starting as you have described.

Merry Christmas

Rob

Thanks for all replies! I will check the spark plugs, as I ve only just checked these mesg's!  From my vists to the car, and doing more reading I m figuring out that it must be the fact that there is no petrol getting into the engine.  Why? cos now when I try to start her up, Im getting puffs of burning smoke - so I ve stopped trying… although it still tries to start…the battery is new.   I did test for listening to hear if the pump works, I get this short humming sound when I turn the key - just before she turns over, so Im assumming maybe the pump is trying to work?

Also I read somewhere that the fuel pump relay could  just get faulty, thus not pump any fuel into the engine….so Im going to try to start from that angle also.  Just dont know of any VW golf GTI dealers shops in london, to buy one from(are they the same? as new golfs?). I have checked on the net, and all they seem to do is ask me to leave them my contact details.

  I might also wait for the garage to get back to me on january 3,  although I would dearly like this problem solved sooner - as its severely cramping my style!   I tried to check a relay underneath the passenger side, I removed it (it had a label with the number 2 on it  for some reason)  But it looked ok….(p.s. WHAT do you look for, when a relay's faulty? I was expecting it to be burnt but it wasnt).

 I did find a red wire that had a fuse on it, that looked like it had been pulled out - but I dont recall pulling any wires out before so am thinking that could have nothing to do with this problem.  Or should I check  the fuel pump itself or filter? only I dont even know where to find them.  A friend said sometimes its in the tank itself or just outside the tank…..hmmm!  will try the spark plugs!

Thanks rob for that comment on the brake cyclinder! It has assured me! Only that I handnt recalled seeing any leaks from the rear wheels, so didnt know what to think.  I would really like to trust the garage but as this is London I m always skeptical.  

Its a GTI. Which is just sitting in my parking space at the moment being rained on.  Whats getting me is that it was working fine, albeit u needed to turn it about 2 times for it to start, then just on friday it stopped working altogether makes me think it could be an electrical failure for the relay or fuel pump.   But dont really know where to look for these things.    Im checking ebay for a haynes manual at the moment.

black smoke is burnt fuel (flooded it me thinks)
the fuel pumps only goes for a few seconds when you turn the key to charge the system. once the engine starts runnin it gets a feed from the coil.

do u know if this  site has a chat room?

dont think so mate ????

well will need to bounce off ideas !  would be good if we did, so I could eliminate stuff.  Will wait until tomorrow to see.  But thanks for the advice.

On the 1990 you have a lift pump in the tank and a fuel pump under the car. I would pull an injector and put it in a bottle and flick the ingnition to see if it sprays fuel. did you look at prowlers site for his injector test ,it will clarify what your looking at. he also shows the lift pump.

Look here http://www.vwgolfmk1.co.uk/Main/tips1.htm

Relay may go faulty as they are mechanical, they rarely show sign of failure!!!

Rob  

Got the problem sorted!  RAC man noticed that turning the key to start "turn" the engine over, it seemed that the ignition light was a bit  faulty (U know, I had never noticed! I need to twist my hair more often cos thats all Im good for!).  So when I took it to the garage, they changed the key barrel. That sorted it!

Oh and they did test that petrol pump was working (thanks to Robb on the forum that mentioned this) I now know what to listen out for just after turning the key to see if the pumps working or not.

 The garage also tested that there was electricity coming out to the engine and I think the coil……Anyway.  Changed the barrel and it got sorted!  

Also thanks for mentioning the fuel burning! That told me that the fuel pump WAS working each time I tried to turn the engine over…Ah cars!!!!!

Been out in my cab and forgot to put this up - I keep forgetting that I not in sunny Africa (Yes the sun DOES shine!) And I was starting to have too much of a good time out in it too!!!  LOL !! Cheers to allayou for helping!!

 You know the garage forgot to plug the electric fan back in, and you know that  I only noticed it now and fixed it myself!…. Let me know if anyone needs a cheap mechanic…as the guy Roy that fixed mine is in south london… a Lovely bloke!

Yeah, I'll take your mechanics number if its handy,

Thx