Immobiliser again. Sorry folks!!

[owelly]

I'm new around these parts so be gentle with me........
I bought a '94 Ibiza 1.8 16v Gti a few months back. It's MoT time so I thought I'd give it a once over.
I reversed it up the drive and dipped the oil. It wanted topping up so I jumped in my other bus and popped to town to get some.
A couple of hours later, I topped up the oil, but then the car refused to start.
Well, it did start for a couple of seconds and then cut out. It will fire every third or so attempt but only runs for a couple of seconds.
I have spoke to the chap I bought the car off and he said it did the same thing with him twice when he had left the keys in the ignition for a period of time (which I also did whilst I went to get the oil). He said it was the immobiliser/key both times with him and a quick trip to the SEAT dealer soon had it fixed.
I have phoned three local(ish) dealers and they have never heard of the keychips having to be recoded/synchronised and would need to have the car for half a day to investigate.
I can get the car to the dealers if I have to but I don't fancy having to pay them squillions whilst they **** about looking for a fault if I know what it is!!
Any suggestions? Quick as I need to get the car MoT'd and then sold!!

 

[ibiza_95]

maybe fuel pump relay, it might be a bit loose, pretty much exactly the same thing happened to me, and when i did an oil change it would make it better for a period of time. relay is in the fuse box in the drivers footwell, just push them all in with a bit of a wiggle (not you wiggling) and see from there... its not going to cost anything to try

EDITED: As i was in a hurry at UNI

 

[owelly]

Thanks for the reply but I've already wiggled the relays, checked the fuses and all the obvious connections.
I towed the car 60 miles to the dealer and it took exactly 7 minutes for them to tell me there was a fault with the key coding.
They told me it could take a while to get the magic numbers from SEAT so I left it with them and went for a trudge around York.
I phoned them after an hour and SEAT hadn't sent the info.
I 'phoned after another hour and they had the numbers and had sorted the immobiliser. But the car still won't run properly. Bugger.
I've had to leave it with them so I'm wondering what they intend to do next and how much it will cost!!!

 

[owelly]

That garage have now told me that when they recoded the keys, the car started but would not tick over. So I could have driven it home and sorted the 'new' problem out myself.

 

[owelly]

I have contacted the garage this morning and the car is still not running correctly when it's cold.
They have cleaned the throttle assembly and powered the ECU down and back up.
The upshot is, they have fixed the faulty key code problem, which is what it went in for. It took 20mins to do.
They have then spent a further hour and a half trying to get it to run right which they have not managed. They think fitting a temp sensor would rectify the problem but want £60+vat to fit one.
So in total, 2 hours @ £65+vat to do a 20minute job and the car still needs fixing.
Do I just pay up or do I have a whinge??

 

[ibiza_95]

have a whinge!* by law they have to tell you they are fixing something before they fix it, and its your right to refuse them fixing it if you want

 

[owelly]

I've got the car back but it cost me £130+vat!!!
I asked why it was so much as they were asked to carry out a 20min job and phone me if there were any extra costs. The service manager said they spent closer to three hours on the car taking the plenum and throttle assembly to pieces to clean it. I asked why they had done that when they had already told me they thought it was a faulty temp sensor. He shrugged and said the bill still stands and he had done me a favour by only charging for 2 hours!!!
Thankfully, they didn't fit the temp sensor which would have cost me another £60+vat.
The car drove home fine so I'll pop to the scrappy in the morning or whenever I get a few moments!
I never usually use franchised dealers as, having worked at one, I know they are usually a rip off but I have spoken to several independant garages who all told me that SEAT would only disclose the immobiliser codes to a SEAT garage which is the only reason why I took the car there.
I'll write a stern letter and then think of someone to send it to.....