hi there good people of the interwebs

 

ive tried searching and reading before posting .. so appologies if the same topic has been covered and i have not found it . 

 

yesterday i was to drive the missus and stopped at the gas station to fill some diesel.  i put some 20 litres on it , drove 50 meters to the nearby grocery store and parked outside waiting for the missus. 

 

i let the engine run, put it in neutral and it shut down as it does . 

5 mins later missus comes out - jumps in and im told to hit the button to start as its gone too long . 

i hit the button and to my surprise the engine cranks fast but does not start like it usually does.  at 5 sec i hit the button again to stop . 

i wait for a bit , hit the button again and it cranks for a good 1o seconds before i again stop it. there is not a hint of starting .

 

i hold the keyfob next to the startbutton thinking the key might have lost connection - nope. same result. 

i disconnect the battery . leave it disconnected for 2 mins, reconnect. jump in the car , turn on the car but not the engine. wait 2 mins before i try the button again.. same result, just fast cranking. 

 

at this point the battery is feeling it so i pull it from the car and leave the car sitting alone feeling ashamed. 

i let the battery charge over night. returned to the car (luckily its 100meters from home)  - and put the battery back in. 

at this point i checked the fuel cap as i know that some VAG vehicles may cause havoc if it cannot create the right pressure in the tank. it was ok. 

 

i enter the car, turn it on without starting . i wait for 2 mins to give it time to say hello to the key and get back up to speed  - try the button and all i get is hectic cranking. no puff . 

 

i have read the sensors while cranking and i have some 2000 kpa pressure in the fuel rail . 

 

my thinking was that its some sort of immobilizer - no fuel getting sprayed .  

 

so far in my research people have suggested; 

 

< BCM needs to be replaced. (another owner experienced same behavior and solution was swap and reprogramming of BCM)

< timing belt stretched and needs replacing (i dont think it has - but its due time to change it)

< new battery  (nothing wrong with the battery, its been tested ) 

< u filled petrol/bad diesel   (diesel filled and its good) 

 

this is not an intermittent fault. first time its happened, but ive had some faults come and come that might point to the bcm. 

tomorrow i will call the local skoda people, but if anyone of you have other thoughts  - please shout it out 

 

(and it is diesel i filled  - i promise) 

Misfuelling would be the most obvious cause, the distance driven correspnds exactly.

 

Other than that fast cranking sounds like the cam belt has snapped & the valves bent but you are probably unaware of just how fast the engine would crank with a new battery without starting.

 

If it starts on Easystart then you can rule out the cambelt and look carefully at the fuel, if your diesel filter has a drain valve then drain off a sample.

 

 

A scan would be helpful. If you go and search for your nearest VCDS person nearest to you and get them to scan your car it will tell you what the issue is.

Call out breakdown company to check? 

 

The high speed cranking over is a worry if it's faster than usual - to me that potentially shows less compression possibly due to bent valves if the cam belt has failed or slipped.

Edited 10 October, 20214 yr by bigjohn

perhaps i should do a little video. it does not crank that fast . fast in the sense  - that its not struggeling to crank - only it does not fire . (sry if i miscommunicated.  ) ill go into the rain and do a video  

 

Video of the nostart . its up for service  (parts in a box behind me, including the timing chain, waterpump etc  ) 

That is not cranking fast.

 

Easystart will put your mind at rest.

 

My money is on the wrong fuel or contaminated fuel.

forgive me , what is easystart? 

 

and no - its not the wrong fuel  and contaminated is very unlikely. i talked to the service station and no complaints nor suspicions  it should be. 

Okay - agreed - this is normal speed - and we DEFINATELY need a scan from the car to assist further.  The ESC warning is due to low battery voltage and the car is then complaining that it needs to be inspected.

 

So - there is a priority 1 fault with the car - and generally priority 1 faults are showstoppers and cannot be bypassed and will cause starting failures.

ive decided to tow it to a repair shop tomorrow and let them run a proper diagnostic. i will report back on what the issue was . thanks for all feedback so far

Easystart is an ether based spray for starting engines that may have fuel or ignition problems, very usefull for diagnosing a lack of fuel on a diesel (or the wrong fuel), that the engine has compression and has not bent its valves.

 

I got cam timing out by one tooth once, only suspected at that point as I had replaced the cambelt but was relying on someone else looking at the flywheel marks while I was aligning the cam pulley, it would not start, seemed to be cranking fast, a dose of Easystart told me that the valves were OK but the cam timing was out.