Altea 1.9tdi BXE wont start - help! starter motor/glow plugs/battery/crank sensor

[chouman]

Hi guys,

We have a 2007 Altea 1.9tdi with BXE engine code. It's on 153k and passed it's MOT on Christmas Eve with no problems on the emissions tests. That was the last time the car was taken out and it has a near full tank of fuel.

This lunch time my wife went to take the car out and it started and immediately cut out. There was a very strong smell too. When trying to start it again (on 2 further occasions) it would crank ok and sounded like it wouldn't quite bite. It would run for a couple of seconds and then die a death. We had the usual flywheel problem around 18 months ago and it sounds very, very similar to when we had that problem. The flywheel and clutch kit were replaced with bits from Dave @ Sere Motors.

The car is serviced every 12 months/10k and last year it had a full service (oil, air, pollen, fuel plus timing belt and water pump - thanks again Dave!). All work is carried out by a very highly regarded ex-VW head technician and they are great.

Last service we were advised that a code had appeared which they cleared, for a fault with glow plug 1. He said it could be either a dodgy plug or loom, but as it was causing no issues to leave it (that was in Feb last year).

So today we have the problem and I am trying to establish what I should do to get the car running again. I have no access to a fault finding machine and basic car knowledge only, although can do oil changes/spark plugs/etc.

So, is there a straight forward way of establishing what could be the problem? I am thinking battery (waiting on my car coming back to try and jump start the Altea), starter motor (I think I read on here a while back that this could be an issue), crank sensor (again, I think I read that here somewhere) or ECU water ingress.

Weather-wise, today is around 8 degrees, whereas the car was fine starting all last week at negative temperatures. This makes me think that it wont be the glow plug(s).

My wife is a student and lives away from Mon-Fri 100 miles away, so I am obviously very keen to make sure that it is not going to give her problems when she leaves again on Monday after her winter break!

Any/all help appreciated.

 

[skard]

Have you dropped your key in the last few days - tried the spare? A faulty IMMO chip will cut the engine out within a second or two.

Otherwise trace back any leaks or smells and see if any of the fuel lines have come undone.

 

[chouman]

Thanks for the reply. Just tried the spare and no difference. It sounds like the starter is not disengaging when it should and it kills the engine. Is that likely?

 

[chouman]

I have just started the car with a jump off my other car. When I first tried it was the same (sounded like the started had stayed in position and it stalled with a clunk), but I gave it a minute, gave the donor car a rev and it started up with a puff of grey/white smoke (I assume from condensation?). The battery is reading 12.14 volts, compared to 12.44 volts on my other car. Would it be safe to assume the battery is dead?

 

[skard]

It should be 13.7-14ish volts depending on what accessories you have running, but measure that after a drive or half hour of running.

Usually a bad battery sounds like lots of ticking relays and it won't fire up at all.

The fact it starts off a jump would point me to investigate the starter, you got an auto electrician nearby?

 

[chouman]

Thanks again skard,
It's reading 13.56v after a wee drive. I also had the tick-tick-tick at one point which lead me to the battery. Sounds like it's on the edge of going maybe.
There's an auto-electrician in town (about 20 minutes away), but I have just called to find he is shut til Monday 5th. My mechanic is too. I need the car to be working for then to get my wife up to uni that day and I need the other car (Sharan) for work/kids so can't let her use that for a week.
I guess I'll need to find a battery and keep my fingers crossed!

 

[skard]

Altea 1.9tdi BXE wont start - help! starter motor/glow plugs/battery/crank se...

The Varta E44 is a good uprated battery, won't do any harm putting a new one on. About £67 on ebay and should come in time.

 

[chouman]

Very tempting, but will hold off til tomorrow and see if I can get one locally for similar money, otherwise I'll get it ordered from Ebay.

I had this years ago and my local Ford dealer matched the price I quoted them from a loacl factors. Hoping for a similar response from the VW garage, but wont hold my breath!

 

[skard]

You never know. But that particular battery fits perfect and has a higher capacity and crank rating than the original. Also the Bosch S4 is good, if you have a local Eurocarparts and use click&collect it always works out reasonable, worth looking at

 

[chouman]

I would prefer to go with the Varta E44, good recommendation and excellent reviews. As I said, my wife is away all week and it would offer piece of mind. I have the Bosch S4 as a backup at around £10 more (after a 5% discount at Eurocarparts).
We live in deepest, darkest Scotland and next day couriers are not always next day (despite us being within the "standard" delivery area). Factor in that it's new year and my confidence is not high!

 

[chouman]

I managed to pick up an "Economy" battery from TPS in the end for a very reasonable £55.74. It was just an Exide Battery with VAG branding on the top. I also got some new discs and pads along with a couple of handbrake cables (right one took nearly 2.5 hours to replace after I managed to pull the guide out of position....) to get them renewed while I was playing with the car.

My brother happened to make an impromptu visit and brought his OBD scanner with him and unfortunately I am showing errors across all 4 glow plugs now and seem to have a problem with the plugs AND the loom (judging by resistances on the meter). I have just ordered a set of BARU plugs and a replacement harness from my new friends at TPS to replace at the weekend when my wife gets back with the car.

Can anybody advice whether my BXE engine will be a simple unplug and plug in for the new harness or whether I need to solder the cables? I am not happy on the second option and will try and get someone to do it for me if it is.

 

[chouman]

Incidentally, it warmed up a couple of degrees in between the first post and me buying and fitting the battery a few days later and I never had a repeat of problem I originally posted with.

The battery was obviously on it's way out anyway, so that's good to change, but I wonder with the noise and smoke on start up whether the real culprit was the combination of glow plugs and harness?

Anyway, if anybody knows whether the BXE has a plug in loom rather than needing to be spliced please let me know.

 

[chouman]

Quick update. The car was home yesterday and it failed to start again (it was -2 degrees when trying), so it went in to the garage today.

My brother was up visiting last week from Englandshire and bought a code reader and all 4 plugs were showing as faulty. After clearing they would throw the same fault code when started up again. I used a neighbour's multimeter and thought I was doing it wrong as the readings were way off what I should have expected. I went off to TPS for a glow plug harness and got a set of BERU plugs on Ebay for £34.50 which I was going to fit, but hadn't had the time. The harness incidentally on this engine is the 4 wire version with no connector, so the old one needs cut out and the new one spliced in. Not sure I would have been confident fitting that....

I dropped the car off at the garage today (friendly local inde) and got a very welcome call to say that the plugs were dodgy, but the harness was fine after testing. Plugs got changed, codes cleared and this time stayed off, confirming the plugs were at fault. Happy at that they took my money and job done. It was 1 degree when I collected the car this afternoon and it fired up virtually instantly which helped my confidence.

Anyway, I'm happy and will have to make a trip on Saturday morning to return the harness to TPS for some cash which covers the garage cost from today. Hopefully they wont have a problem with that.

 

[kevlaa]

Glad you fixed it mate fingers crossed its all sorted and won't pop back up again.