Can anyone shed some light on this issue , I have had a issue with a long standing Mk2 1.9TDI PD where the car , initially a great starter , stated to drain the battery and required a jump start after not using for a few weeks. It did use to start fine but gradually got worse to the point where now even with a MK1 TDI VRS suplying the juice via good thick jump leads the car barely turns over!

This was compounded a few weeks ago where the glow plug light is flashing and does not turn off. I scanned the car with a cheap OBD2 reader but no fault is listed.

When jumping the car and turning the ignition you sometimes hear a loud crack which I recently witnessed was a spark from the battery terminals.

I swapped my new battery over from the vrs thinking the battery was shorting internally and this made no difference still , turning over slow and the rev counter jumps up to halfway on the dial. 5 minutes of periodic starting and it is still slow as , almost like your hand cranking the engine.

I checked the terminals for rust and cleaned up the contacts but its still the same , removed the earth strap from the battery terminal and when i bent it it seemed to crack but since measured it with a DVM and it looks fine. Also tried a jump lead direct from the negative battery terminal to the body , still the same , tried various places to get a good earth but no difference.

I checked the EGR and while a bit oily it opens and closes on ignition turned to off position, no movement when switched on , which i thought was weird but could be normal behaviour.

I now think it must be the starter motor and believe it has its own heavy duty earth strap ( or positive feed ) so maybe thats the issue ?

Battery is OK as are the jump leads.

I did notice that the engine bay on this car is very corroded , for example air filter screw heads just chewed up when i went to remove them , had to dril them out , same for the battery tray nuts , they just rounded off so more fun and games but my Mk1 VRS with the same PD engine is pristine , bone dry and hardly any rust and 5 years older then the MK2.

Can anyone advise if I have missed something , car has done 142K by the way and was running fine and about to become my daily workhorse to save my lovely MK1 VRS some wear , TIA :)

Check all earth straps from engine to chassis.

Probably come from somewhere near the sea. As said check earth straps especially near starter and also cables to starter. It could be the starter thats failing. Had one in an old van that started to crank slowly and half the coils had burnt out so only half power. The flashing glowplug may be down to a few things. Could be low battery/good battery with bad earth also check your brake lights are working as well. Found this when I was working on my sons MK1 so may be the same.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2Sm3QJJNRZo

Thanks will check at the weekend, anyone know if the solenoid could be the issue rather then the starter motor?

Forgot to say I checked the brake lights and they all function fine, I thought it might be the switch but the other poles which signal to the ECU. Still have not ruled out this out but be good to have a OBD2 reader that can interogate the ECU to get the code.

I'm not sure if the reader I have cannot read the ECU or if there is no code listed, tried clearing errors but made no difference.

If you mean the pre-engage solenoid, I wouldn't initially suspect it for slow crank - it is either on or off - pulling the starter pinion into engagement with the flywheel ring gear and closing the main contacts to supply power to the starter motor. Dirty contacts in the solenoid could cause your issue - but I'd be first looking at all large electrical connections (earth straps, etc) to the engine first.

Not had time to investigate too much but tried connecting a spare jump lead between battery negative and various points on the engine and gearbox near te starter motor to no effect.

I guess the car being stood most of the wet winter has not helped, the last time I had her started and running for 30 minutes I turned off the engine and tried starting again and it turned over quickly fired into life on the same battery pointing to a damp starter .

Willl try again this weekend, tks for your help :)

Just to let you know I finally managed to start Fabia with a jump start from another car , I dont think the issue is resolved as such but eventually after warming the car up the glow plugs flashing symol went away and has not come back.

Re the slow turnover well I noticed that with the jumper car reving about 2300 rpm my fabia seemed to trunover slower then when the jumoer car was running at idle.....WEIRD!!!

Eventually with the car turning over slower then it should it caught and fired, I let the car warmup for around 20 minutes had a short drive and stopped and tried the ignition again and she started normally. The odd thing I came back an hour later , retried her and battery said NO !

So I need a new battery , well I knew that but still not convinced there is not a earth fault somewhere , I tried a spare heavy 4mm ground cable connected to various earths round t e car and it seemed to make little or no difference.

New Battery now on order.............

4mm cable for earth reckon is too small. Think main battery is 10mm or more and starter is at least 6mm. If a new battery doesn't cure it it may be the starter itself. Used to be able to get them checked at a local autosparky as he had a machine to simulate starting load and was an expert at rebuilding them but alas he has retired. Doubt anyone checks them anymore. Hope the new battery cures it.

Alasdair

Sorry my bad, its 8mm cable and had it as a additional earth strap , I wanted to try it as a starter cable but the car started eventually so did not have time to move it round.

I tried my new battery off my VRS a few weeks ago and the car still barely turned over but I know the current battery is toast so yes in a bit of a awkward position atm. Te car is parked on a steepdrive so I cant just bump start either .arghhhh LOL bloody cars