A2 will not start

D

david140

Member
Hi,

Firstly the battery is fully charged. The symptoms: I turn the ignition key to the first stop and all the dash lights come on as usual, then when the glow plug light goes out I turn the switch and nothing happens apart from a frantic relay sound towards the front center of the dash. Today I have checked all the electrics to the starter motor and there appears to be good pos and neg connections and there is power going to the solenoid when I turn the key to the start position. Additionally I have taken the starter motor out, taken it apart and cleaned and greased all the bearings etc. The solenoid had one slight loose bold of the three that hold it to the starter motor housing, so I took that apart and could see there was a bit of wear on a part of the main solenoid piston. cleaned all that up and replaced, then starter motor back in the car but still not working.

Any suggestions would be most welcome please.

David
 
david140 said:
Hi,

Firstly the battery is fully charged. The symptoms: I turn the ignition key to the first stop and all the dash lights come on as usual, then when the glow plug light goes out I turn the switch and nothing happens apart from a frantic relay sound towards the front center of the dash. Today I have checked all the electrics to the starter motor and there appears to be good pos and neg connections and there is power going to the solenoid when I turn the key to the start position. Additionally I have taken the starter motor out, taken it apart and cleaned and greased all the bearings etc. The solenoid had one slight loose bold of the three that hold it to the starter motor housing, so I took that apart and could see there was a bit of wear on a part of the main solenoid piston. cleaned all that up and replaced, then starter motor back in the car but still not working.

Any suggestions would be most welcome please.

David
Click to expand...

They are the symptoms of a flat or low battery and so if yours is definitely fully charged then it must be a bad connection. Either the usual earth connector in the engine compartment above the gearbocx (well hidden) or possibly a the smaller positive lead on the battery might be loose?

Steve B
 
+1 for earth connection. Exactly the symptoms I had. I'll link the thread. I think we recommended this to be routine preventative maintenance for the A2 as a few folk have unfortunately thrown money at the fault to find that a new washer and some emery cloth on the earth strap is the fix. :(
 
When i took my nearside headlamp out last week i noticed that the earth washer was going green and furry. I blatted it with waxoyl so hopefully that may do the trick for a while - should really have taken it off and cleaned it though. :)
 
Hi all,

I thought I had posted a reply but it does not appear to be in the thread.. So once again many thanks to all who responded and you were correct that it was the earth connection to the chassis as described. It was in a horrible state and all corroded anyway I had to take the passenger headlamp out to get to the bolt as I have all the AC pipework in the way. Cleaned it all up, ran a tap through the threaded area, replaced the washer (as the old on was corroded and badly pitted) smeared the lot in petroleum jelly and hey presto it started first time. What a great club and this is the third or forth time that members have helped me diagnose a problem with the A2 1.4 Tdi.

Thanks again everyone and happy A2 motoring..

David
 
Thanks are due to the contributors to this thread. I had a problem starting the car early this year, I checked all the usual stuff and decided that the starter was failing. So I fitted a new one and all was well for the 4 or 5 times I used it for shopping during the lockdown. Then last Saturday It died and I was stranded in Glos. Called breakdown and between us, eliminated everything with the conclusion that the new moter had a faulty solenoid. Bump started and drove home. Today I had the old motor re-conditioned and swaped then again. Still dead. So that is how I came to be reading this thread. I have cleaned all the corosion from the earth contact on the frame and we are back to starting on the first cylinder. I had to file the underside of the bolt because the arcing had deposited a large part of the steel washer, like co2 weld. Access is ok with the headlight out and a socket universal joint.
A2 Earth connection.JPG
Earth Bolt.JPG
 
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