Car is running great at 69,000 miles and with Shark's Stage 1 remap.

 

However, I started noticing a weird thing when starting.  Sometimes the car kind of 'coughs' when turning and won't start. Usually starts next turn but on the odd occasion it may take 3 or 4 turns. It's usually if the engine is still warm although I have noticed it when it's cold.

 

I'm loathed to take it in before I have an idea what it could be

 

Any ideas?

How is this for a coincidence ??? Mine is an '09 Vrs TD CR pre-FL with 68,000 miles on the clock, and has just developed exactly the same problem this week !!!

When the engine is warm, and has been switched off for just a few minutes, it sometimes won't start on the first or second turn of the key, but fires at the third attempt. This has now happened to me 3 times in 4 days, but has never happened previously.

Anyone got any suggestions ??

Whilst I appreciate it is hard to believe, especially as the car starts fine at all other times, but a failing battery has been known to cause some very unusual symptoms, especially related to warm starting. Documented quite a bit on here over the years.

 

Just a thought.

 

Any chance of plugging it in to VCDS to check for fault codes?

Seen the other threads re battery issues, but they seem to relate to older PD engine vehicles, don't they ??

I tend to find that batteries these days are generally good for about 10-12 years before they start to pack up, so would be surprised if it is the battery.

The battery on my vRS CR needed replacing at about 3 and a half years old and 38k miles. 

 

Can't say if the symptoms were exactly the same but it started taking an extra turn or so to start, both hot and cold starts.

 

Eventually when it had been sat for nearly a week in the garage without moving it just would not start.

 

New battery (extortionate from Skoda!) and all was well with the world.

 

I have never had to replace a battery on a car either, let alone a three-year-old one, but I had put it down to our car having heated seats which were used a lot and also automatic xenons which I have set to come on with unlocking- since the car stays in the garage the lights come on every time we lock or unlock and I wondred if this was putting more load on the battery than usual.

Went to the car this morning, after it was left parked outside work last night, turned the key, waited for the glow plug light to go out, and then started the engine. Ran fine for about 5 seconds then died. Took 3 attempts to get it going and sounded like it was running on 2 cylinders for about another 5 seconds, so I revved it and it then cleared itself and has run okay since. Never done that before !!

Have phoned bro-in-law's garage and taking it in this aft for VCDS check.

Not the battery then.

 

Fingers crossed a fault code has been logged.

 

This is good for a cross reference if there is anything logged...

 

http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Fault_Codes

It wasn't doing a regen by any chance when you switched it off ? I had this issue at New Year, parked it up at night and came to take son to work next morning. Started ok, reversed out of drive and started off in first, ok for a few yards then started to cough and splutter really badly. Dipped the clutch so it didn't stall and revved it slightly, it cleared and has been ok since. Just a thought ?

Got it checked on VCDS and no fault codes listed, so I got him to check the battery....came up as needing charging, despite it having had a few decent runs in the last few days, so I bit the bullet this morning and forked out £66 for a replacement. Fingers crossed. 

A week on and it appears to be good news...not had a single issue starting it !! :clap:  :clap: