Hi all

 

I got my 2008, 08 reg 1.4tdi roomster in April.  Love it and it's perfect for my dogs and our many trips to shows and events.

 

Very quickly we had to have a new starter and battery fitted (within 2 weeks) everything was fine after this for approx 4 months. We then got intermittent not starting but that seems fixed now with new key batteries.

 

However we had intermittent issues with the headlights.

Turn car on, put lights on drive 400 yards or so and the head lights and dash lights turn off completely and re light within 5 secs. 

 

This has happened again tonight approx 6 to 8 weeks since the last time it did it, we have also had slight dimming of the dash and headlights when depressing the breaks tonight which was only really noticed on the very dark lanes but not round town.

Also had flicking or on/off flashing when reversing at tighter than usual angle tonight as well which it has done once in the past.

 

Can anyone shed some "light", excuse the pun lol on why it would do this.

 

Thanks in advance 

Now this morning at 6am, it won't turn over. 

Primes up but won't start. It has gone nippy this morning temp wise but had noticed last few days battery light stopping in a sec or two longer than usual when firing up 

 

Has been doing regular 420 miles a week most of last 3 weeks 

All that dimming when other lights are activated points to a high resistance on the power lines. I would check the earths for tightness, especially the battery negative and engine earth straps. Your 2nd post is pointing to a dead battery, the chemistry of a lead acid battery does mean that failures would be more apparent when colder.

Was the dimming with brakes only when the engine was at idle ?

So once you check earths, charge the battery and hopefully get the vehicle started again check for 14.5v on the battery when engine running.  

Battery has full charge, we tested it this morning. 

 

It wont turn over, not even trying and wont jump from cables. 

 

Dimming when depressing the brake was while driving not when at idle. 

 

My garage seems to think starter has gone again due to it not wanting to fire and I'm currently awaiting a tow. 

 

Also discovered thick oil underneath as well so getting that checked once at garage too 

Battery was tested 10 days ago aswell and was at 14.4v when tested 

If it manual why not push start it ?

It's back from the garage, new coil pack and temp sensor, mechanic researched common faults for not starting and this were listed.

 

Collected it today, fired up easily and much quieter on tick over. 

 

Fingers crossed we now got to the bottom of it 

New coil pack on a tdi ? Also those were stopping it turning over ?

Yes these were changed and I've seen the old ones they took out. 

 

Apparently common problem on skoda and VW.

 

My mechanic is not a rip off merchant and I've used them for several years, they explain everything along the way  

Could be me getting the wrong terminology/name as was extremely tired yesterday but I have seen the parts that were changed