No main beam, no fan, low tickover and a whirring noise

Hello,

Last night my Golf cut out from a cold start which is perfectly normal seeing as I still haven't got round to reattaching the choke lol. However when I started it again I had dim headlights, no fan and quite a loud 'whirring' noise coming from the engine bay. Would I be right in thinking that this could be an alternator problem? I've checked the belt and that's fine. I am going to get my multimeter and check the battery terminals in a bit. It's a Clipper.

Are there any other things I should check? To my ears the noise seems to come from the starter motor more so than the Alternator but it is quite hard to tell.

Thanks in advance  

Just got my car back after being stolen and had to 'hotwire' my own car… found that if both feeds aren't permanently connected then you only have dashboard lights, but no fan, main beam and more importantly no radiator fan. When I was hotwiring my car I accidently left the ignition feed connected and had a loud whirring noise from the starter motor so disconnected that pretty quickly. You may have an issue with the ignition switch and its connections!!! Failing that you may have an issue with fusebox or alternator????

Hope this helps???

Andy

Hello Andy cheers for your reply, I've only just read it. Sorry to hear about your car getting jacked, at least you got it back though.

I have had a proper look today and it is something to do with the ignition switch or barrel, when you turn the key all the way it does not kind of 'spring' back any more. So as you say it's stuck in the ignition position and the car gives electricity to only certain things.

You can turn the key back to the normal position it stays in when your driving (sorry I don't know the correct names for the these positions lol) so it is useable but i'm going to have to fix it as eventually it's just going to pack in all together isn't it.

I guess I need to replace the barrel?

No worries mate! Hope you get it sorted…. you could always adopt my method at the minute… hotwire it and forget the barrel! (electrician by trade but car electrics are a totally different field!!) Loads of shops do just the barrels or complete housings with the barrel enclosed. I had a quick look on the forums and there were some guides showing you how to get a new barrel and adjusting the internal columns you can keep the same key? Failing that try some WD40 down the barrel (with the battery disconnected) and keep turning it till the spring back works… might just work?

Andy

That was going to be my suggestion spray wd40 down it and work it in. I always seem to find with golfs most of the time the simplest option or fix can just work.

Dan

Cheers for the advice, I'll blast some WD down it in a sec and see what happens. If I do have to replace the barrel I would be keen to keep my key, I didn't know that was an option so tar very much. I've read a few guides on removing the barrel and it looks pretty easy, hopefully won't have to though.

Cheers again.