My 'al Mum (bless her) has a 1.4 8v Auto which unfortunately is now out of warranty. The problem is that she is now experiencing problems starting it. The starter motor turns the engine over as expected, but as soon as the engine fires up it is VERY lumpy and makes no attempt to speed up if she presses the accelerator. This lasts for between 1 and 5 seconds, and then the engine runs as normal. It's a bit worrying because she's loosing confidence, thinking that the engine will eventually fail to start completely. We've been to the dealer today and he's connected it to a VAG-COM and said that there are no fault codes logged, the alternator is charging, the battery condition is OK, and the electrical connections to the starter motor and battery are secure. The Master Tech does not know what this problem could be. They've mulled over replacing the starter motor and the battery, but the starter motor always works as expected, and although the battery is now old , the starter motor appears to operate at what I would consider normal operating speed.

Any help with this would be very much appreciated. The car has only done 30,000 miles so I can't think that it's worn out :eek:

Thanks in advance, AIXlad

Erm they dont do a 1.4 8V Auto, only 16v (75 bhp)

Need to clarify this as its makes a fair difference to the diagnosis.

Oh :eek: ! Yes, you got me on this one. I failed to say that it's a VW Polo, but assumed the same configuration was used in the Fabia. Not wanting to register on a Polo forum, and being familiar with the wealth of information available on Briskoda I was hoping that someone could make a few sensible suggestions. Sorry for misleading you.

No problem. Chances are I can help if I have the correct info.

You not a million miles away from me are you? Be happy to take a look for you.

Ross

Thanks Lummox, I appreciate your interest. The car has been left at the dealers (Spirit Banbury) tonight because they want to do some tests from cold, and it's quite frosty tonight! Although difficult to diagnose via the forum, at this stage I was just wanting to get some thoughts on what could possibly be causing the problem.

They indicated that the starter motor could have a "dead spot"; a point at which the starter motor won't work. A valid point, but the starter motor always operates, it's just at that point when the engine starts to fire that we have this hesitation, just for a couple of seconds the engine seems to be running on one or two cylinders before eventually they all fire. After that the car is OK and runs like a dream. My thoughts are that it may be fuel related, I don't believe this engine is fuel injected, so the choke may be operated mechanically. It's a real puzzler. Any thoughts? I really want to avoid them changing the battery, starter motor, etc, etc, until they eliminate the problem.

At first thought I would think its a faulty coolant temp sensor which is causing overfueling first thing.

At first thought I would think its a faulty coolant temp sensor which is causing overfueling first thing.

As always, you've yet again hit the nail on the head! Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I owe you a pint

After having it parked outside in the frost overnight, this morning they found the Coolant Temperature Sensor to be inaccurate. Less than

Glad to be of service.