Anyone else experienced this?

i was driving along the other day in normal traffic when the DPF warning appeared. Now this is not unusual as it has happened once before over a year ago and I know How to clear it Driving. 

Whats strange is after 30 seconds of the light coming on the engine cut out warning for everything started appearing and refused to start again at all.  

 

The engine wouldn’t turn over at all and would click once and then drop power. 

I was recovered home by the RAC who seemed to think it was the alternator. 

Investigations have shown the Alternator is good, the battery is good but the engine still refuses to turn over. 

The starter motor has been bench tested  and works. 

 

so what am I missing???

What is causing me this problem, is it going to get expensive really quickly?

 

(on a side note a couple of months ago I experienced a tapping noise when cold which Skoda diagnosed as the EGR Valve.)

You need an OBD scan to see what fault codes the engine ECU is showing, that should diagnose the problem, without that it would be 100% guesswork.

I would hazard a guess that there is a bad power connection to the engine ECU.

Check the battery pole connections & the grounding points around the engine bay are all secured tightly.

 

If this doesnt give you a obvious cause, a OBD reader should point you in the right direction.

Most control modules should be able to detect a sudden loss of battery power & raise a DTC in memory at the next startup.

The RAC guy should have had a generic OBD scan tool & used this before he diagnosed an alternator problem.

Thanks for the reply’s it’s been a long day. The RAC guy was a bit lazy me thinks, I managed to run a VCDS tonight and the fault code points to the starter motor, which works fine out of the engine. 

 

 Faults Found:
5456 - Starter Will Not Turn 
 P3054 00 [167] - Jammed or Electrical Malfunction
 MIL ON - Not Confirmed - Tested Since Memory Clear

Edited 22 August, 20187 yr by Nipani

But those are not codes associated with the symptoms you described, unless the motor jammed and pulled the voltage down and caused a brownout?

DMF failing would potentially jam the ability to start...

 

but then so would a buggered engine along with the dpd.

 

i would personally imagine it’s electrical though.

Maybe it is a contact/starter key lock issue?

 

On old black one TDI O3, we had a few errors on board, and afterwards we couldn't switch off the engine. You pull out the key and engine still runs! Replacement of the lock solved the issue.

 

Please check if this is the same problem.

I would start by trying to remove the battery connections & check the poles for signs of oxidisation.

If there is any, clean it completely & the cable-side hoop connecter & try again.

 

I've had problems before where the arcing at the battery terminal caused by a loose connection causes a white-oxidation around the terminal post.

The battery could provide enough current to turn on the ECUs but not the demand from the starter & you would get a click, lots of warning lights & no movement of the starter motor.

 

After this, you can try to find where the engine bay ground points are & check these are all secure. I'm sure someone here will be able to provide an diagram or overview.

That is my plan this weekend, to check terminals, condition of wiring and ground points as it has recently had work on the EGR valve which involved a fair amount of stripping. 

Finally got round to doing some investigations. 

Battery, starter Motor, alternator all good including cables and connections. 

Engine still refusing to turn.

I started by removed the glow plugs which were changed 6 months ago. 

1 and 2 look good, Number 3 is bent and number 4 looks very unhealthy. 

trying to get my head around why the glow plug would be bent.  No.4 looks like leaking/misfiring/bad injection to me.

It’s a mystery to me too, the only way I’m going to know for sure is by getting deep into the engine and praying it’s not to severe. 

I am seriously considering throwing the towel in already and handing it over to the stealers to watch the £££ signs roll away like a petrol station forecourt. 

Been a while since I posted an update so here is a picture of what the problem was, and it definitely doesn’t need explaining. 

Um, ****. Dare I even ask what the cost is going to be?

Yikes. At least you know what bent the glow plugs now.

It'll be interesting to know where this started.

 

Gaz

Edited 21 October, 20187 yr by V6TDI

How many miles were on the engine?

 

cambelt/water pump or something else?

 

edit: actually is it just the one cylinder? Wonder if the tapping noise was valve noise, which eventually failed, dropped into the path of the piston and then got broken off and bounced around. Not good regardless.

Edited 22 October, 20187 yr by cheezemonkhai