I'm sorry, haven't been following this thread, but: How old is the battery? I had several starting problems with my 1.9 and the glow plugs, which turned out to be a worn out battery even though it looked OK via the tester. After changing it, it was like a new car... 

I'm sorry, haven't been following this thread, but: How old is the battery? I had several starting problems with my 1.9 and the glow plugs, which turned out to be a worn out battery even though it looked OK via the tester. After changing it, it was like a new car... 

Hi. Battery is a minimum of 5 years old. Cranking speed is OK..

The PD engined cars have the "no speed safety" trip set a little high. This means that a slow crank with a weak battery and a tired Valeo starter won't reach the threshold at which the system delivers fuel. All electronic diesel control systems need a "no speed safety" limit in case of loss of speed signal. It's not safe to run an engine if you don't know how fast it's going... I don't know how the VP44 is set.

 

I changed the Varta battery on my 1.9PD after 9 years - it never ever failed to start and I reckoned I'd had my money's worth. I fitted another Varta of course - but not sourced from VAG.

 

rotodiesel.

It's good to know someone has good experience with Varta - I too fitted one 15 years ago to a Renault I used to own, and sold it five years later with the same battery in it - they seem to be well made.  I also have good experience of the Bosch Silver (I think? Or platinum?) range.

I think my car is injecting fuel while cranking, as I get lots of white smoke when it (eventually) fires up.

Cold starts are OK-ish, though a bit lumpy, two days in a row.

Better plug VCDS back in and see what the CTS is reading.  I also want to re-check the dynamic idle timing today.  My warm start symptoms are the same as what I had last summer (with the old pump) when at 6pm after work the car needed extended cranking because it had stood in the Sun all day and glowplugs didn't come on.  New CTS and advancing the SOI to most advanced position per spec seemed to cure it.

In terms of setting idle dynamic timing, I read somewhere that in addition to the coolant having to be 85 deg C minimum, the air intake should also be warmish (I think 30 deg C+) otherwise the SOI won't be representative.  I don't know how true this is.  Anyone knows here?  I could always improvise, by fitting a hose to the inlet and directing to the radiator or through the radiator core to pre-heat the air.

I've never had a car that cost this much to fix and took so much of my time to pamper.  Maybe I should have bought that GS300 4 years ago...  :think:

Edited 3 January, 201412 yr by oh_superb

The only part of the engine I have ever replaced (other than service items) is the CTS. My 1.9 (MY 05) engine had a black-bodied CTS which eventually failed, putting the CEL on the dash. The car drove and started perfectly as the PD system software computes the coolant temperature from the fuel return temperature and uses a substitute value as a reversionary mode. After fitting a green CTS sourced from GSF (made in Germany but not VAG OE) the CEL went out after a couple of runs and has stayed out.

 

Of course, I opened the failed CTS and VAG have unbelievably potted two fragile Siemens bead thermistor elements in hard white epoxy. Enclosed in a brass tube, thermal cycling of course sees these off in no time and the higher resistance bead for the engine control had cracked intermittently open circuit. This is such a basic design error it's hard to believe that VAG took so long to fix it - but then we are still seing PC mounted relays with cracked soldered joints. The Japanese know much better - pity they can't make diesel engines to my satisfaction.

 

The green CTS units I have opened are potted in soft silicone material, but I won't buy rubbish from VAG on principle. I would obviously avoid Chinese pattern parts, but the GSF pattern senders seem fine and are cheap. The green sender is 059 919 501A (at least for the PD) and it reads 1166 Ohms (A section) and 2737 Ohms (B section) at 20 deg C.

 

If you have any doubts whatever about the CTS I would change it.

 

rotodiesel.

I agree with Roto. The most likely cause would be a faulty CTS. The Febi ones are fine. It's often more important to know the source than the manufacturer, as there are counterfeit versions of VAG, Febi and most of the major manufacturers.

A bad battery usually shows itself first on warm starts, as there is a minimum speed check but this is disabled on cold starts.

It's not unusual to see 90°C on the dash for anything from 79°C to 112°C. see http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/246750-the-coolant-temp-gauge-a-question-by-sheer-curiosity/

On my 1.9 I put up with rubbish starts for a year because Halfraud's Bosch battery tester reckoned mine was ok.  This year I thought blow it an bought new battery - what do you know, perfect starts.  It was a 5 year old Bosch by the looks of things.

Checked my idle dynamic timing today using VCDS. "Late" is at 3.8 deg ATDC. Early around 15 BTDC. So I think that's the culprit. It needs 3 degrees of advance.

On my 1.9 I put up with rubbish starts for a year because Halfraud's Bosch battery tester reckoned mine was ok. This year I thought blow it an bought new battery - what do you know, perfect starts. It was a 5 year old Bosch by the looks of things.

Exactly what i experienced.

Checked my idle dynamic timing today using VCDS. "Late" is at 3.8 deg ATDC. Early around 15 BTDC. So I think that's the culprit. It needs 3 degrees of advance.

That's right ... the "late" point should be around 0.8deg ATDC, which means that it needs to be advanced by 3 degrees from where it is at the moment, as you correctly say.

 

I checked the starting on my V6 yesterday, and cold start at about 1 pm in 5C air temperature, the glow plug light was on for about 5 secs and car started fine, though it coughed once or twice before settling to a good rhythm as I'm pretty sure that I've got one or two faulty glow plugs. If the temperature is sub zero, it coughs a bit more and I tend to get a puff of "normal looking" diesel smoke drifting out from under the car before it settles to a good tickover.

 

After a 15 mile drive, left it for a couple of hours and I'm not even sure that the glow plug light came on .... it may have done, but it was very brief and the car started on the first pull with no coughs. The V6 seems to hold onto its heat pretty well, as I've noticed that leaving it for about 2.5 hours when watching a football match on a very cold day, there is no glow plug wait and the hot vents work almost immediately on frozen hands and get really warm within a mile or so.

 

Prior to changing the cambelt on mine, warm starts were always more difficult than cold starts ..... it would always start but sometimes I would think that I would have to stop cranking and try again as the battery was starting to sound tired after 10 seconds or so.

 

When we did the cambelt, we must have "got lucky" as we didn't check the pump timing with VCDS and the warm starts are much improved,  fuel economy is good (always seems to average 48mpg ) so I've just left it and not checked what it actually is.

 

Regarding the needle lift sensor on the injector, does the wiring for this run underneath the rocker cover? I had a look on mine and could see no wires going to any of the injectors, so assume that the wiring lives inside ..... or that the later V6 doesn't have a needle lift sensor?

 

Hope it all works out for you .... you would think that garages that can fix VP44s would know how to set the timing on them?

@CRC: I think when you changed your belts, the new belt not being stretched meant that effectively your IP timing has gone a bit more advanced, perhaps that's why your starts improved.  That's my theory.

 

All 2.5 tdi engines have a NLS.  Remove the beauty cover from the top of the engine.  Look at the right cylinder head (from the drivers position) cam cover inboard side (towards centre Vee) between injector 2 and 3, there is a black wire coming through, and it routes through the turbo pipework (probably under the compressor inlet hose) and clips into a connector on the bulk head between brake servo and battery.  You can disconnect it there and check the resistance across the pins, it should be 75 to 125 Ohms.  My old one was reading infinity.  The new one 90 Ohms.

At first I had intermittent fault with it on VCDS.

Then it became consistent with VCDS plugged in engine off it would re-emerge as soon as the code it cleared.  2 weeks later my injection pump advance servo packed up.  I am sure these NLS injectors fail at 100k and 120k miles based on all the internet research I have done.  My advice would be to check it at least to keep and eye on its condition from time to time especially if you are in that sort of mileage range.   Main dealer will charge 388 quid for this injector, part only, and cynically I was told "that's actually cheap as CR ones are over a grand".  I got a brand new Bosch unit from Central Auto Supplies for £100 less, but you need to make sure that you have the correct injector part number (AYM and BDG versions of the V6 have different p/n).  Also note that the new injectors do not come with a washer.  Again main dealer was arrogant and did not even return my calls, as it's obviously not worth their while to call back for a £3 part.  I got a genuine VW washer from top chaps at TPS for £0.69.  Changing it is not a big job really, easy DIY.  If you are anywhere near I'd quite happily give you a hand, it's only a couple of hours' work if you should ever need to change it.  It may prolong the life of the IP too as the advance servo will have less moving around adjustment to do.

 

I am hoping to catch a bit of dry weather to adjust my dynamic timing.

Edited 4 January, 201412 yr by oh_superb

Tried to adjust the pump timing today, the three 6mm internal hex bolts are a bit damaged, much rather replace them, does someone have the part number for these three bolts that attach the pump pulley to the left hand cylinder head pulley? Please?   I'd like to get some new ones.

Edited 5 January, 201412 yr by oh_superb

These are M8x18mm 6mm hex… I've ordered a pack of generic ones (stainless).  Hopefully galvanic corrosion won't be an issue.