car wont start thinking of selling if doesnt start soon :(

definitely check your crank sensor, totally agree. Had exactly the same problems on mine about the same time and wasted lots of money replacing things I didn't need to.

The bad news is that the crank sensor (sometimes called cps or crank pos sensor) is a bit awkward to get to. Most ppl take the oil filter off, so not something to do for fun.

The good news is, if you search the forum for crank sensors, someone- i forget who- posted a file that basically shows you what results sticking a meter between the pins of the connector from the crank sensor should give. This is good news because while the cps is in a bad place, the wires from it go to a 3 pin plug that joins the main wiring loom near the top of your engine... So you can test it before you buy one...

Apparently there's some confusion in GSF's system and they may not give you the right part, but unless you know what it looks like you won't know til you fit it!

I got mine from Andrew Page, local branch had it on the shelf, and it was about 20quid.

There's loads about crank sensors on the forum if you do a search, including how to get at it and the story about gsf part codes...

The Golf boys chuck a relay about as easily as ppl point at beezer coil packs for this problem too. 172 sticks in mind? Don't remember, it's grey tho...

mine starts first bloody time, its not that that I hate about this car it's all the suspension/steering/brakes issues I seem to be having at the moment. It never ends. Making more grinding squeaky rubbery noises again this week after having all the brakes done last week.

Who wants my car ?

s28ven said:

Hm, Cant find the info on testing the sensor which would be slightly handy

Any clues

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Yups.

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=258028&page=2

Post number 33.

Top diagram showing connector makes sense when you've seen the actual plug.

There's stuff about finding the connector further up... somewhere on page 1 I think?

For ref, from what I wrote at the time my sensor prolly cost me 40 notes not 20. Fitted straight in and solved the problem though.

In a nutshell, what that sensor does is feed back to the ECU how fast the engine is turning, and therefore enables the ECU to work out fuelling and stuff in conjunction with the data it gets from the airflow sensor and the knock sensors and stuff.

Pretty sure Fords do the same trick with a sensor in the final drive, kinda where the speedo cable would be if you had one...

crossedmike said:

Sheer lives again was a faulty crank sensor that I had replaced grrrrrrrr ao been in garage for so long because mecanic didn't check as was new

Click to expand...

Did you replace it with a second hand one or something? lol.

Mat Lock said:

mine starts first bloody time, its not that that I hate about this car it's all the suspension/steering/brakes issues I seem to be having at the moment. It never ends. Making more grinding squeaky rubbery noises again this week after having all the brakes done last week.

Who wants my car ?

Click to expand...

What sort of noises? When doing what? A lot of my creaky squeaks went away when I changed my suspension. I *know* that the struts themselves wouldn't have cured it, but I replaced all my strut top bearing rubbers at the same time, and the old ones were pretty ropey when they came out. They had done at least 120k though...

205's make similar noises when the bearings in the rear beam are on the way/shot. Easy job on them apart from getting the beam off and back on again. Wouldn't try it without help or a 4post lift...

Caffienated said:

What sort of noises? When doing what? A lot of my creaky squeaks went away when I changed my suspension. I *know* that the struts themselves wouldn't have cured it, but I replaced all my strut top bearing rubbers at the same time, and the old ones were pretty ropey when they came out. They had done at least 120k though...

205's make similar noises when the bearings in the rear beam are on the way/shot. Easy job on them apart from getting the beam off and back on again. Wouldn't try it without help or a 4post lift...

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Well, when it went in the garage the first time with creaky rubbery crunchy noises it came out with a £277 bill for:

CV gaiter Kit
Outer CV Joint
Vacuum Pipe
3hrs labour

Then went back in a month later with more crunchy scrapey noises, went in the garage and had this done for the tasty sum of £550:

The correct brake discs fitted 280s instead of the 262 (or something) that were already on there. Brake pads and all the bearings to fit them all front and back, plus some ring things to fit the rear discs.

1 week later and there's more scrapey, metal on metal, rubbery noises coming from the front, when steering or driving very slowly is when you notice it the most.

I wish I could record what it sounds like, it's nasty !!

s28ven said:

Thanks for this. I checked the sensor as described and it would seem the sensor is knackered so I'm going to fit a new one at the weekend and hopefully all going well she will run again. Looking forward to the pain of a job though

I'm guessing that the LED test is really just an ohm test and the sensor works by completing the circuit, by say four times a revolution of the crank.

Hopefully after setting up the timing due to the previous owner fitting a new dizzy without setting TDC (after what I would assume is a wrong diagnosis by a garage and the AA) she will purr like a little kitten

I will keep you all updated.

Thanks again,

Steven

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No worries. Be interesting to hear what you find... With mine, the sensor might actually still have been ok, but the wiring from it was just shredded. I don't really see how it would have been rubbing on anything, so I can only assume road debris caused it. Made it much harder to diagnose, cos when the shredded wires were making contact in the right way, the car ran well and started ok, but eventually wind and vibration or moisture would give me a dead short to ground and kill my fuel supply. Wasn't immediately visible cos of road-gunk on the wires. I've still got the offending sensor hanging on the garage wall to swear at!

A replacement dizzy was pretty much my next port of call, although I was pretty certain that it was fuel not sparks by that point... Dizzy setup shouldn't be too hard. Wind the engine to TDC on the compression stroke on the right cylinder, point the rotor arm in the right direction, bolt the dizzy back in and you may well find the ecu takes care of the rest for you! If not, once good static timing has been established, dynamic shouldn't be too far off to tweak with strobe.

The sensor swap itself is really easy, like one bolt and a plug or something. It's just figuring your way in. Oil filter off and relieved front subframe mounts for me... and lots of engine cleaner so that I could see what I was doing! One day I will steam my engine bay and lacquer everything up nicely and keep it that way...

s28ven said:

LED test

Click to expand...

Yups. A standard LED plus say, a 470ohm resistor in series should give you a nice light at 9v. It's just a test lamp.

I used a multimeter cos I'm low-tech like that...

Mat Lock said:

Well, when it went in the garage the first time with creaky rubbery crunchy noises it came out with a £277 bill for:

CV gaiter Kit
Outer CV Joint
Vacuum Pipe
3hrs labour

Then went back in a month later with more crunchy scrapey noises, went in the garage and had this done for the tasty sum of £550:

The correct brake discs fitted 280s instead of the 262 (or something) that were already on there. Brake pads and all the bearings to fit them all front and back, plus some ring things to fit the rear discs.

1 week later and there's more scrapey, metal on metal, rubbery noises coming from the front, when steering or driving very slowly is when you notice it the most.

I wish I could record what it sounds like, it's nasty !!

Click to expand...

I could understand the CV stuff maybe, but none of this really sounds to me like the sort of noise you're describing? Do you get the noise when driving over speed bumps/potholes etc slowly too?

These are all worthwhile jobs that may well have wanted doing, but it sounds a little like they're shooting in the dark? Is this a garage you know well? No disrespect to them at all, I might just be paranoid about garages after some of my experiences as a teenager...