Ibiza Starting and Idle problems - Solved!

RohnIbiza

Guest
Hi Guys, complete newbie here.

I thought i'd share my pain and eventual solutions to a couple of problems i've had with my Mk2 1.4 Ibiza. When trying to solve these problems the forums were invaluable but I thought i'd summarise what exactly fixed the problems!

For reference my car is a 1998 Seat Ibiza 1.4 SXE (Engine code AEX) 8v

Problems:
- Car would start in the cold absolutely fine. However, if you tried to start the car when it was warm it would fire but inevetibly die! The only way you could get it to start would be to keep your foot on the accelerator for maybe 5-10 seconds after the engine fired up, eventually the car would then start to idle and be ready to go...

- When pulling upto a stop the car would judder quite violently when the clutch was pressed. This was due to it not idleing properly.

Solutions:
- Firsly my mechanic diagnosed clutch judder (THIS WAS NOT THE CASE AT ALL - Although I can kinda see why he thought that)

- After reading many similar forums I found out that the poor starting may be due to Coolant Sensor (Also known as a temperature sender).
There are brillant instructions of where the sensor is located and how to replace here:
http://www.clubpolo.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=100712

A few things though. The likelyhood is you will lose alot of coolant - find some way of catching it! The rubber seal thing the author talks about is actually a plastic C-clip that just pulls out (towards you) by hand.

This solved the starting problems, the car would start first time, everytime. The car still juddered on idle though.

-Again after reading many forums the idle problem was found to be a filthy throttle body.
To clean this take of the air filter housing (the big plastic thing ontop of the engine) by simply unscrewing the screws. The throttle body is a metal cylinder sitting in the middle. Spray some carb cleaner spray in and around the cylinder while opening and closing the throttle (either by hand using the cable or have a friend rev the car for you!)

Once this was done the car would start first time, idle correctly and generally felt a more solid car!

I hope this helps other owners with similar problems, I was starting to lose faith in the car (and mechanics) completely but it now drives great for a 10 year car with 110000 on the clock!!

Cheers

Rohnibiza
 

perks

Active Member
Oct 27, 2008
87
0
Awesome. I'm going through the same thing at the mo. a 1.6 8v though and I was at wits end until I found this forum. Awesome.
 

michaeltimmis

Guest
That sounds very similar to the issues I am having, mine is a 2003 1.4 sport though! But assume engines are very similar?!

The engine light came on yesterday and breakdown people came out and hooked a computer up, (Didn't charge me anything...few!) which said it was a fault with the water temperature sensor. Which by the sounds of it is the same sensor you talk about above.

I'm also going to buy a new one and have a go at replacing :headhurt:
 
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