Hello,

hope your all enjoying the festivities

looking for a bit of help if possible.

My polo 9n

02 plate,

AWY engine,

1.2

has done 86k

I've had it for 7 years and had most of the usual problems

but for the first time today it's left me stranded at the roadside.

A few days ago (Fri) it refused to start after being parked for 5 mins,

i assumed it was coilpacks, i was expecting them to go at 90k, i had

2 spare but used coilpacks in the boot, so i changed the faulty one

and the car started. Today (Wed) after being parked for minutes it

refused to start, i was waiting for it and had already been to t.p.s. and

bought three new coilpacks, so i swapped them out at the roadside.

The car wont start, just turns over.

Could the new coilpacks be for a different vehicle ?

Could it be the Crank Position Sensor ?

Any help at all would be great, didn't need this at this time of the year.

Thank you.

If you're able to get it scanned for fault codes it could make it easier (didn't help with my Polo though!).

Where are you? If you're local I don't mind having a quick scan for you.

I've got a cheap scanner myself, I'll be scanning it in the morning, hopefully should know more then.

Thanks for the offer Trigger, i'm in Salford if your passing

Ah, cool, hopefully reveal something to go on.

Sure, I'm out and about tomorrow, I'll pop in on the way to the shops, only a 6 hour around trip.

Edited 26 December, 201213 yr by TriggerFish

Not related car but my mum recently had trouble with her focus. Got a new coil pack 6 months ago, problems starting and driving the car so bought a new coil pack last week. Sorted for a few days, then trouble came back. She gave in and got RAC out who said they recommend new plugs, ht leads and coil pack at the same time. Turned out no. 4 cylinder ht lead was burning out the coil pack. She replaced all plugs & leads with the new coil pack, it's been sweet as since.

Just scanned it . I have 1 code - DTC 01 16556.

According to Gendan who make the scanner that codes relates to - Fuel Trim - System Rich (Bank 1)

i have no idea what that could be, any help at all would be good.

Thank you.

MAF or Lambda.

I've tried to get it started in daylight, see if i can see anything out of place. When it turns over i get a flashing oil can symbol and three beeps as well as the error code. i scanned it again after getting the oil can light and there are no new codes. also cleaned the throttle body with carb cleaner.

thanks for the replies so far.

Here is the Ross-Tech Wiki decode for 16556:

http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index.php/16556/P0172/000370

Even with a duff coilpack the car should still start, it will just run like a bag of spanners on three cylinders. Check all the leads are connected properly, if necessary disconnect all 4 and reconnect them one by one and check that the electrical connections show no sign of corrosion.

Been out and had a good look round again, can't see any vac pipe leaks. The list of possible causes on the Ross tech list show "oil overfill"

i topped it up only 2 days ago, i'm clutching at straws really.

All 3 new coilpacks are seated and connected correctly, no signs of corrosion on connectors, no breaks in the wires.

The Oil pressure light has only just come on this morning - Is this related or a new problem ?

I'm stumped

Checked the oil and it was slightly low, topped up and tried to start it, nothing, still getting the oil pressure light and beeps.

Just spoke to T.P.S. and confirmed that these are the correct coil packs. He said maybe i should look at the M.A.P. Sensor, could anyone tell me where it is on the engine, i dont have a haynes manual.

Thanks for the replies.

Oil pressure light will be on because the engine turning over does not provide sufficient pressure to pump the oil at normal pressure. I would not worry about that unless it stays on once the engine is running. MAP sensor is usually located after the airbox and directly attached to the air intake pipework. There will be an electrical connection, so it should in theory be easy to locate.

Taken the Map Sensor off, cleaned with carb cleaner, still no joy. VW Parts man said the car WILL START with a faulty Map Sensor.

It's not even trying to fire, just turns over. I'm completely clueless with this problem, dont know where to look now.

The only offer of advice from VW was to let them plug it in, dont know if i can afford that right now.

No choice but to try and fix it myself if possible.

If anyone can offer any more advice, that would be great.

Thank you.

Basic question. If you take a spark plug out and fit it in the HT coilpack, let it rest on metal part of engine and crank over starter, do you get sparks at plug electrodes?

This may help.......

If yes, next step is to ensure there is petrol supply. Shine a torch down plug hole to see if it's wet in combustion chamber.

It could be too wet, in which case remove all plugs, dry electrodes and leave somewhwere warm. Then poke clean rag down plug hole to soak up excess petrol, rotating engine to bring pistons to top dead centre.

Get a can of engine starter e.g. 'Easy Start'. Also get a mate to help.

Now, we've got sparks, put back the dried out spark plugs. Re-connect all coil packs & wiring, disconnect inlet hose from air filter and get mate to try starting from driver's seat whilst you spray 'easy Start' into the air filter. Engine may well 'fire' on the easy start and then run on the petrol straight after. Let us know how you get on.

I will check for a spark next, first thing in the morning.

Assuming there is no spark at the plugs, what would i check next ?

Many thanks for all the help so far.

If you do seem to have sparks and fuel, then I think if it were me I'd be doing a compression test, and if that's all OK, trying to establish that the chain timing is OK.

For the latter, you'll find a removable cap over a hole at the nearside end of the cam, rotate engine (with all sparkplugs out) 'til No.1 cylinder's piston is exactly at top, and hope to see the slots in the end of the cam horizontal.

Thanks for all the help so far, I've not been able to get near the car due to rain at the moment. Tried to start it this morning and got nowhere but did notice that the battery is draining, due to the fact that i have tried to start it numerous times and it hasn't ran.

I was thinking of taking the battery off and charging it overnight and putting it back on Tues before the garage opens on Wed.

The car will have not battery for 4 days, Could this cause me any more problems ?

Have you ever considered replacing the engine temperature sensor, you can't tell if its okay unless you use something like VCDS as a second probe will probably be feeding the temperature gauge and unless its o/c or s/c it will not get logged as a fault - well if it still gives credible temperature readings then it will not be seen as a fail. You need to get the battery charged now and dry the plugs and cylinders out a bit as advised already - as well as checking the static timing. There is now another thread on this issue I see!

That stored fault might not be new, pity these faults don't get date tagged when they first appear, I'm assumming that you have cleared that fault out of memory.

Edited 29 December, 201213 yr by rum4mo

I can't get near the car yet due to the weather, not seen rain like it !

managed to lend a car and get to the car shop for a plug spanner so will be checking the plugs at the first chance (weather permitting)

Battery's on charge right now. in order to check for fuel would it be ok to take an injector out and try to start it or is that a bad idea ?

As for the Temp Sensor, the car seems to take a long time for the engine to show warm when running and it takes an age for the idle to drop to 700rpm.

It's been doing this for over a year.....would that problem stop the car from running though ?

Thank you very much for the replies, much appreciated.

If the temp sensor has been faulty then it would have been running the engine too rich, could that cause damage leading to such a problem especially after such a long time?

Spare Key didn't work.

I dont know if it's relevant but over the last month the engine has been making a loud humming noise.

When you turn the key to the first notch all the dash lights show as normal along with a brief loud hum that lasts about 2 - 3 seconds.

Turn the key and the engine starts and the humming noise is back until you turn it off.

I put the battery back just now and noticed that when you turn the ignition key to the first notch, there is no humming noise at all, it's always made this noise..........Could it be the Fuel Pump ? or just a coincidence ?

Everytime i go out it starts raining, will be dark soon, another day gone.

When you turn the key to "ignition on" position (warning lights on), the fuel pump will run for a second to pressure the lines. If it has stopped doing this, I'd check fuses...although I'm not sure which one protects the fuel pump circuit...for sure, if the fuel system is not pressurised, it won't even fire at all. Potentially, there may be a relay involved too but check the fuses first.

If the pump has been loud when operating, it could indicate it's on the way out, although they can stay loud for a while before they let go. Usually, once the engine is started, you can't hear the pump, unless you have almost no fuel in it & are right at the fuel tank.

Edited 31 December, 201213 yr by gt-cri

Here's a link to a pdf which might be handy to you:

http://telectroboy.free.fr/docs/SSP%20GB/SSP%20260_THE%201.2LTR%203%20CYLINDER%20PETROL%20ENGINE%20S.pdf

Thanks for the link but the .pdf wont load for me. i cant read it, is there any other links for that doc ?