I've now got a new battery as the present one is circa 9 years old. I do not get starting problems in the morning, but occasionally get refusal to crank during the day. I put that down to an ageing battery. But I do get starter problems during the day, where there's evidence of a sticky solenoid. It could be a dodgy trigger  wire, but  I'd suggest that in that case I'd not get the dreaded "click" when trying to start.

Haynes quotes starter as a 2KW type, but most motor places have problems with starter types. Anyone help with either Skoda part no or type as ( as I've had with battery) no company seems to know which one I need.

it could be the trigger, but i'm not certain about that, so I'm looking in advance. I'm hping that a simple rmove / clean up the solenoid plate / degunk th motor and clutch will suffice. But failing that - I might need to replace it.

I had the same issue last year and it turned out to be the solenoid trigger wire.. I was all set to get the solenoid off a Passat (friend had one for breaking).

 

For a while I could get the car to crank by putting the clutch down and ramming it into reverse .... This was the sign of a bad connection but I ignored that until it wouldnt work !!!

 

I took out the battery and battery box and the trigger wire just broke away from the connector - I just soldered in an extra 2" of wire and looped it to take up the vibration .. Put a sleeve with plenty of water repellant grease and then put a new crimp on... Very proud and no bother since !

 

Rule this in or out first - its no harm anyway as its a well known issue !

Not on mine- I had battery box out when I changed the battery  to rule it out. My problem was more like a sticky solenoid . I could hear the solenoid trying to engage, but no motor, till I tapped the solenoid. As I mentioned elsewhere ,I'm shocked at the gauge of the wire used . IMHO- far too small for the current the solenoid will draw . For information- IF it's possible ( I have not checked yet) the cure for solenoid problems is to take the solenoid off and clean inside and polish up the contact surfaces. last solenoid I had problems with had the high current wires soldered . I simply unsoldered  the connections, broke down the solenoid , cleaned the inside & contact surfaces.  I did get a clutch problem at one time and gave  starter to a mate in the Auto /electrical trade. After cleaning up the inside he remarked that it was as good as a new starter - and that was on a 15year old car.

At moment ,all seems well. It could be just the fact that the battery was ( like me) suffering from old age.

17 hours ago, VWD said:

For information- IF it's possible ( I have not checked yet) the cure for solenoid problems is to take the solenoid off and clean inside and polish up the contact surfaces.

 

Often the metal 'can' is crimped over the plastic end piece and can't be removed without trashing it.

 

Edited 19 October, 20205 yr by TMB

Possibly that's the "modern"way . In that case a new solenoid might be possible ( if available).  I know my daughter had problems with solenoid a few years ago and a local place fitted a new solenoid.  Basically there's only a few areas where problems can occur

Brushes.

Solenoid contact area - poor contact after dirt on the contact surface.

Clutch mech. And that 's normally just dust/dirt build up .

But my problems seem to have gone with a new battery. Possibly my 096 is in the running for the record on age -It's circa 9 year old this month. On occasions, I've had all memory functions ( clock- radio etc) reset to default after a bad start session, and I've had  the solenoid click, as in flat battery, only to recover after the hammer treatment suggesting a sticky solenoid. Since changing battery, none of these problems seem to exist. I've had the battery case out and checked out the solenoid trigger- all seems well with it. So as I'm not convinced that I have a problem starter ( most likely a low output battery) I'll monitor the situation .