2018 L&L estate 2.0TDI 190hp 4x4 DSG

 

Today, when I left the office and took a seat in my car, I pressed the brake pedal and pushed the "start engine" button and the engine started cranking. But in a few seconds I realised it wouldn't start. I let it crank for a about 5 seconds before I pressed the start button again to terminate the cranking. Second try, same result. Third try, same result. After that I stepped out of the car, locked the doors, opened them up again and sat back in the drivers seat. Fourth try and still same result. I tried to fiddle with the keys and locked the doors again and did all kind of things that came to my mind in this short period of time. Fifth try, same result. After the fifth try I was so ****ed that I stepped out of the vehicle and opened the bonnet to see if there would be some obvious reasons for this (like broken fuel hose or something), but there were none. I thought that I will try one last time to start the car before I call a towing company. Sixth try and the car started within a second from pushing the start button. No fault codes whatsoever on the screen. 

 

Could this be some sort of immobiliser problem? I am almost 100 percent sure, that this has nothing to do with fuel management in mechanical sense, but rather in "electrical" like the immobiliser not detecting the car key or something. Car has KESSY keyless go system. A week ago I got the message that battery level is low and maybe the immobiliser is not functioning properly because of this. Cranking is also as fast as it can be, so the starter motor is not bad.

 

I am planning to change the battery this weekend and see if that helps. I have VCDS for the coding (at least I believe that the new battery needs to be "coded" with VCDS) and a spare battery which I can hook up to the car so that it does not need to be cut out from the current completely when removing the cars own battery.

Do you really have to press the button a second time to stop the engine cranking?

 

Usually you hold down a start button and release it to stop cranking, if that is how it should be then maybe your start button contact is sticking or giving a double pulse if its a start/stop button.

 

I have only had one on a racecar, no desire to have the pointless function on a road car, another thing to go wrong.

5 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Do you really have to press the button a second time to stop the engine cranking?

 

Usually you hold down a start button and release it to stop cranking, if that is how it should be then maybe your start button contact is sticking or giving a double pulse if its a start/stop button.

 

I have only had one on a racecar, no desire to have the pointless function on a road car, another thing to go wrong.

I have not actually never tried in any other way than pressing the start button and releasing it immediately. With this method the engine starts crancking and fires up and the starter motor releases and stops turning. Some how I thought that you need to press it once to get the starter motor turning and engine cranking and if for some unkown reason the engine does not start you press the button second time to stop the sequence.