Hi

 

Have a 2004 Fabia VRs tdi which has served me well for 160,000 miles with regular servicing until a recent issue whereby the car now takes 3-5 seconds of cranking to start. It always used to start immediately in under a second. I first noticed hesitation starting about 3 months ago and it has gradually got worse and worse.

 

It had a scheduled major service a month ago at my local (reliable) VW independent specialist which included air/oil/fuel filters and a cambelt change but this didn't make it any better or worse. It has also had a new battery recently which also made no difference.

 

It doesn't seem to be any better or worse when cold, warm or hot, or when it's been stopped for 2 minutes or 2 days. It was the same during a short spell of hot weather back in July. I haven't checked glow plugs but I wouldn't imagine they would play a significant part in hot conditions or when the engine is fully up to temperature?

 

My concern is sooner or later it just won't start at all - other than that it runs fine and doesn't appear to have any other symptoms once started.

 

I have checked the battery bay wiring and visually at least it looks sound. I'm running out of ideas at this stage - next suspect would be starter motor I guess but I don't want to start throwing money at the problem in the hope that something may or may not fix it!

 

One thing I was wondering was whether there is any way to check/measure cranking RPM? I understand that it needs to be >300rpm for the fuel to be supplied and the car to start. If I crank long enough to start (3-5 seconds) then after a couple of seconds the tacho needle activates and reads around 300rpm then starts but it happens so quickly it's hard to know whether this reading is valid or useful.

 

Would welcome any suggestions or advice. It's a great car that has served me well for several years and I'd love to keep it going for a few more....

 

thanks in advance

 

I have just had the same problem on a Saab 9-5 1.9tid this weekend. engine would turn over for around 5 seconds before firing over. It did sound like the battery was losing charge as the turn over was very slow, battery was good and charging at 14.1v.

after multiple checks using plug in computers and visual inspections it turned out to be a lazy starter motor. Changed it and the Saab fires up instantly.

I have just had the same problem on a Saab 9-5 1.9tid this weekend. engine would turn over for around 5 seconds before firing over. It did sound like the battery was losing charge as the turn over was very slow, battery was good and charging at 14.1v.

after multiple checks using plug in computers and visual inspections it turned out to be a lazy starter motor. Changed it and the Saab fires up instantly.

 

 

I have just had the same problem on a Saab 9-5 1.9tid this weekend. engine would turn over for around 5 seconds before firing over. It did sound like the battery was losing charge as the turn over was very slow, battery was good and charging at 14.1v.

after multiple checks using plug in computers and visual inspections it turned out to be a lazy starter motor. Changed it and the Saab fires up instantly.

Cheers Alex. Hmmm.. not done a starter motor on the VRs before - anybody got any pointers as to what is involved/how long it takes?

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/327871-vrs-wont-start/

 

by the look of it, it seems if you remove the battery and tray it can be accessed from the top.

check your camshaft torsion values once engine is running!

 

ideally need Vagcom for this, long cranking time can be down to camshaft being out of range

check your camshaft torsion values once engine is running!

 

ideally need Vagcom for this, long cranking time can be down to camshaft being out of range

Thanks I will dig out my vcds-lite interface and have a look, not tried that before.. As a matter of interest, what kind of values (high/low or -ve/+ve) would normally correspond to lazy starting? The cambelt was replaced recently and it didn't seem to make much difference to the starting performance either way although I'm assuming that when it was done they would re-set the timing manually rather than rely on the original pulley placement...?

Hi Jvn, I have a similar issue, just wondering if you had any luck in fixing the problem?

I had a recent start issue followed by a weird loss of power (not limp home mode). Scanned with VCDS lite and it showed an error with the camshaft position sensor.

Sourced the part from ebay and fitted it myself. Cleared the error code and the car has been fine since