Diagnose my Golf!

Freeman

Freeman

Freeman

Soldato
Joined
24 Jul 2004
Posts
5,565
Hi

Title shamelessly stolen from another thread, but it's really getting to me now!

It's a 53 reg, 1.4 Golf Match, and it's been having idling problems for a while now. In fact I think I may have created a post on these very forums about it.

The fluctuating idle is ok, I can deal with it (idles between 800-1000 up and down) - however this morning the car wouldn't start. It would turn over, but not spark into life. I eventually got it to start by almost killing the battery. My cars done this before (couple years back) so I phoned the RAC, they came around, pushed the car a little, and it started straight away. I was told that it may have been flooded. (the previous night I had started the engine)
Fast forward to today and I did exactly the same thing last night. Started the engine once to see the mileage, switched it off again. This morning I go to start it, and it turns over but doesn't start the engine. I presume flooded again? I tried to push it a little, no luck...

There are also moments where the engine will stall or cut out just after I start accelerating. There have been a few times where I've nearly gone on to the other side of the road. It's pretty scary not having power steering as I go round a corner...it's getting to the point of being too dangerous to drive.

I also drive down a pretty long drive way, and at the end of it my car will tell me !Check alternator! - now I mentioned this to the guy at the garage and he said it's not the alternator, but just a generic message. "we can't find anything wrong with it"

Obviously I'll be taking it to the garage, but I'd like to try and diagnose the problem myself (with your help!) before forking out the money to a garage.

Thank you.
 
Why did you have to start it to see the mileage? You could have just turned the ignition on.

Sounds to me like you need someone with a VAG-COM/VCDS cable to scan the car and read any fault codes.
 
The problems starting, rough idling and stalling under acceleration point to a fuelling or air problem, my first instinct would be the idle stepper and/or throttle body.

But yes, diagnostics is really the way forward :)
 
paradigm said:
Why did you have to start it to see the mileage? You could have just turned the ignition on.

Sounds to me like you need someone with a VAG-COM/VCDS cable to scan the car and read any fault codes.
Click to expand...

Force of habit mainly.

Sounds like a job for the VW dealer then. Most of my local garages readers don't work on my car (or so they say) and give a broad reading of 'there is a warning' but doesn't point to what the actual problem is.

Thanks for the replies.
 
Surely you can find someone local(ish) willing to read the code for a few beer tokens? Plenty of people on seatcupra.net who offer their cables up to forum members.

Must be worth a quick ask around/google.
 
flooding/idle issue sounds lambda related. i had it before with a golf, it would dump tons of fuel in on cold idle and if you switch it off it would flood

as for the PAS and alternator issue, they are both powered by the same aux belt. find out what the problem is or just replace the aux belt and tensioner
 
your alternator sounds like it is not charging properly leading to the message and also not charging the battery properly leading to starting issues. This engine also suffers from the throttle body going out of sync when the battery dies or shorts. this will cause the idling/accelerating issue

alex
 
cm1179 said:
had exactly the same problem with my mk4 1.4

got the throttle body cleaned for £40 and it was sorted.
Click to expand...

Did you have to get it on diagnostics to get it to re-learn the idle strategy?

I did this to a friend's polo of roughly the same era and it ran nicely, but idled at about 1500rpm until diagnostics. Just something to be aware of for the OP, if this turns out to the be the issue.
 
Matt82 said:
flooding/idle issue sounds lambda related. i had it before with a golf, it would dump tons of fuel in on cold idle and if you switch it off it would flood
Click to expand...

Closed loop control isn't enabled until the engine coolant reaches a specific temperature, so cold start issues won't be caused by an oxygen sensor. Or do you mean "lambda" in the generic sense of mixture control?

However, cold start problems can be caused by a faulty/out of tolerance engine coolant sensor.
 
cm1179 said:
had exactly the same problem with my mk4 1.4

got the throttle body cleaned for £40 and it was sorted.
Click to expand...

For the idle issue or the starting/cutting out issue?

EDIT: I guess that's a yes then after doing some research.
I wish I could fix it myself, but have no idea where the throttle body is on a Golf. More research needed!

EDIT2: aha! http://uk-mkivs.net/forums/t/424699.aspx
 
Last edited:
Just an update on this.

Having no previous car mechanic experience we opened up my VW and removed the throttle body. It was extremely difficult to clean when the electronics + air pipe was attached, so without knowing if it would destroy the idle, we removed both...
Cleaned it up using WD (there was 1-2mm of dirt) and placed it back in.
Took us about 3 hours but so far so good. The car idles at a nice 800 and hasn't had problems since.
So fingers crossed it's fixed the problem.

Thanks for the advice, pretty pleased I didn't take it into the garage.
 
I'd use the proper stuff, throttle body cleaner or carb cleaner if there's no sensors in there.
 

Sorry dude, no business promotion allowed on the forum so you may want to remove that or offer it for free.
 
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