99 Golf mk iv won't start!!

04CELICA140 · 30-03-2009 12:35pm #1

Hi guys,

Girlfriends golf wouldn't start Saturday morning so she taught the battery was knackered cause for the past while if she left the radio on for any lenght of time at all it drained the battery and needed a jump start.
So this time when it just wouldnt start at all she got jump leads again and it started fine but went and bought a new battery and when the new battery was put in by her cousin who is a mechanic it wouldnt start....
Sh!te.....What is wrong?
He says its not the starter cause it trys to start???hard to explain it just wont start.
He thinks it might be something to do with petrol pump its a 1.6l petrol by da way.
Think hes looking at it again today but she needs her car for work every day this week....Help...I dont have a clue but im not a mechanic.

Thanks to anyone how can point us in the right direction, or is it a minefield?????????

Gary ITR · 30-03-2009 12:39pm

It didn't start at all when the battery was replaced? Has the car got any sort of aftermarket immobiliser?

04CELICA140 · 30-03-2009 12:44pm

Excuse my ignorance!! but what is that and why would it have an aftermarket one?

Also i doubt it does we were lookin through service history and nothing out of the ordinary there.
She is second owner it has 147000 miles on her not a bother before this

Thanks

Gary ITR · 30-03-2009 12:49pm

04CELICA140 wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance!! but what is that and why would it have an aftermarket one?

Also i doubt it does we were lookin through service history and nothing out of the ordinary there.
She is second owner it has 147000 miles on her not a bother before this

Thanks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immobiliser

Did it start at all with the new battery? Was it a brand new battery? Did you try jumping it with the new battery?

04CELICA140 · 30-03-2009 12:52pm

No never started at all with new one, yes brand new and yes tried jumping it, and also pushed it down the road to try start it and no go.
Cheers

04CELICA140 · 30-03-2009 12:53pm

No never started, yes its brand new, yes tried jump leads and also tried push starting it and no go!!

Vain · 30-03-2009 2:03pm

Same thing happened to my 99golf it was the fuel pump.

04CELICA140 · 30-03-2009 2:07pm

Really vain?
Wats dat like to fix/replace?
cost?
time?

cheers.

Was it the same sorta situation with urs?

DublinDilbert · 30-03-2009 2:11pm

It should be very easy to identify a problem with the fuel pump.

Has her mechanic/cousin checked:-
the fuel rail pressure?
the voltage at the fuel pump?

Another trick is to try get the the car to "start" for a few second on carb cleaner by spraying it into the inlet manifold. If the car starts and runs for a few seconds, you generally know its a fuel related problem....

04CELICA140 · 30-03-2009 2:17pm

Cheers DD

I think hes at it at da mo,
im at work so i cant ask him exactly what he has/hasnt checked.
Hope he gets to the bottom of it today and gets it sorted either this eve or tomorrow!!
Kinda hope its the fuel pump now cause at least it doesn't sound too serious, and at least we'd know what it is without bringing it to a VW garage and costing a fortune.

Vain · 30-03-2009 4:48pm

04CELICA140 wrote: »

Really vain?
Wats dat like to fix/replace?
cost?
time?

cheers.

Was it the same sorta situation with urs?

My car was gone for the day to be fixed anyway it cost 300euro but that was for doing the nct on it too. So doubt you will get much change from 250euro.

crosstownk · 30-03-2009 6:36pm

A 1999 Golf has a factory immobiliser. If it is faulty, the starter will turn over and the engine will fire up and die straight away.

A fuel pump could be responsible but so could other things. A pressure test on the fuel supply system will determine if the pump is OK or not. It may not be the fuel pump - it could be the fuel pump relay.

OP, are any warning lights on the dash staying on?

kazul · 30-03-2009 6:43pm

Is there fuel in it?

04CELICA140 · 30-03-2009 7:10pm

No lights staying on and plenty of fuel. Wish it was just no fuel at this stage

Vain · 30-03-2009 7:17pm

04CELICA140 wrote: »

No lights staying on and plenty of fuel. Wish it was just no fuel at this stage

Did you get the fuel pump checked? Its more than likely that.

kazul · 30-03-2009 7:25pm

04CELICA140 wrote: »

when the new battery was put in by her cousin who is a mechanic it wouldnt start....

Without wanting to sound too sarky, he doesn't sound like much of a mechanic. He might have blown a fuse or relay by getting polarity a***ways. It could be any nuber of things, could be a coincidental failure of something non-related.
If he's really a mechanic he has a better chance of sorting it than us, i.e. he can see the car, do tests etc.

crosstownk · 30-03-2009 7:46pm

kazul wrote: »

Without wanting to sound too sarky, he doesn't sound like much of a mechanic. He might have blown a fuse or relay by getting polarity a***ways. It could be any nuber of things, could be a coincidental failure of something non-related.
If he's really a mechanic he has a better chance of sorting it than us, i.e. he can see the car, do tests etc.

Battery positive and negative posts are different sizes. So unless both were held to the posts at the same time then it's very unlikely that the polarity was reversed - even by accident.

He may be a mechanic and be able to test but it depends on what tools he had available at the time. Most mechanics have all their tools at their place of work unless they are serious nixer merchants.

04CELICA140 · 31-03-2009 8:56am

Exactly crosstownk!!! He is a mechanic, hes a good mechanic. He is a bus eireann mechanic so he works mostly on busses, but he was doing all this with no tools so give him a break. Im just trying to get more info etc..

Thanks for all the help anyways guys.

04CELICA140 · 02-04-2009 10:20am

UPDATE!!

The car was connected to a computer yesterday and no fault showed up or somthing to that effect, which lead to the guy saying that the ECU is the fault. He thinks the ecu is corroded and full of water. Aparently this is a common enough problem with VW's. He said he had a 06 Caddy with the exact same problem only last week, all he had to do in that case was take the ecu out and completely dry it out and clean it up. So the ecu of the golf is coming out today and same thing happening to it. He also said though that the ECU could be fcuked!!!which means 900euro approx for new one programmed and new key!!!
God i hope this is not the case. Anyone any experiences of this???
Thanks..

Darragh29 · 02-04-2009 3:38pm

04CELICA140 wrote: »

UPDATE!!

The car was connected to a computer yesterday and no fault showed up or somthing to that effect, which lead to the guy saying that the ECU is the fault. He thinks the ecu is corroded and full of water. Aparently this is a common enough problem with VW's. He said he had a 06 Caddy with the exact same problem only last week, all he had to do in that case was take the ecu out and completely dry it out and clean it up. So the ecu of the golf is coming out today and same thing happening to it. He also said though that the ECU could be fcuked!!!which means 900euro approx for new one programmed and new key!!!
God i hope this is not the case. Anyone any experiences of this???
Thanks..

I just want to make sure I'm understanding you clearly here... The car was hooked up to a diagnostics computer yesterday, there were no fault codes and on that basis, someone has decided that the ECU is the problem??? :eek::eek::eek:

This is going to be a laugh of a thread!

04CELICA140 · 02-04-2009 6:38pm

Well I'm certainly not laughing so tell all us non mechanics why u find it so funny?u obviously no where to look for the problem so tell me

L-M · 02-04-2009 6:48pm

04CELICA140 wrote: »

Well I'm certainly not laughing so tell all us non mechanics why u find it so funny?u obviously no where to look for the problem so tell me

Just a guess, but a diagnosis bit of kit connects into the ECU to check for problems. So if it showed no faults, how is it the ECU, lol. I could be wrong, just a guess.

DublinDilbert · 02-04-2009 7:05pm

04CELICA140 wrote: »

Well I'm certainly not laughing so tell all us non mechanics why u find it so funny?u obviously no where to look for the problem so tell me

Its not a big deal to pull out the ECU, it will be fairly obvious if water has gotten in or near it, just by what you see around it.....

If water has gotten in, i would expect to see some error codes, after all the engine isn't running... even when you scan an ecu in a car thats running fine, you might often find a DCT stored....

So why is she not starting? no spark? no fuel injectors firing? A non starter should be very easy to diagnose for a person with the right training.

04CELICA140 · 02-04-2009 7:07pm

Yea ok so the car won't start and the ecu shows no fault where cud the fault be so? Fuel pump? Is da car fcuked. Tink the best thing might be bring it to a vw garage

bcmf · 02-04-2009 7:18pm

my 2 cents worth:
If it was hooked up to a diagnostic fault reader and NO FAULT showed then I would be very doubtful that the ecu is at fault.
It sounds like it is a faulty fuel pump (fuse/relay blown?)
or an immobilser problem.Remeber if you try and start the car 2-3 times and it doesnt fire your immobliser will kick in AND it will never start.
Sometimes diconneting the battery for 10-15mns will sort this-sometimes not.
If it doesnt then a trip to a VW main dealer will be needed to re-set the immoby.

04CELICA140 · 02-04-2009 8:01pm

Gettin a fuel pump outa 1.6 octavia tomorrow and puttin it in to test. Who says itl start?I'll update ye. Thanks for all yer help by da way appreciate it

DublinDilbert · 02-04-2009 8:38pm

04CELICA140 wrote: »

Gettin a fuel pump outa 1.6 octavia tomorrow and puttin it in to test. Who says itl start?I'll update ye. Thanks for all yer help by da way appreciate it

Its very easy to test if there's no fuel getting up there... I outlined a method earlier in the thread.... If the mechanics are any bit decent they would of measured the fuel rail pressure in about 20 seconds, and verified if the fuel supply is ok.

Why go to the trouble of changing the fuel pump? if your not sure its even faulty.

Don't bring the car to a VW garage. You need to go to a diagnostic specialist, who as the correct equipment & knowledge to nail down your problem. What part of the country are you in? people here should be able to point you to an expert who lives in your area.

04CELICA140 · 02-04-2009 9:52pm

I'm from longford girlfriend from roscommon so anywhere round athlone long ford or roscommon. That's what well do after tomorrow so.get it fixed once and for all.thanks

Darragh29 · 02-04-2009 10:15pm

04CELICA140 wrote: »

Well I'm certainly not laughing so tell all us non mechanics why u find it so funny?u obviously no where to look for the problem so tell me

I'm a fully qualified mechanic. You don't change an ECU simply because there "are no fault codes"...

04CELICA140 · 09-04-2009 3:35pm

FIXED!!

Just to finish off the thread

The problem was a loose wire aparently in that little fuse box area under the steering wheel???I dont know what its called but such a simple problem in the end all it needed was the wire reconnected and bobs ur uncle..mad

Cheers guys for all the help and info

99 Golf mk iv won't start!!

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