Squealing Starter Motor - All fixed thanks to Tom (Timmus)

imranshariff

A2OC Donor
Colleagues

The squealing starter motor posts are becoming more frequent in the forum, especially for those who are holding onto our A2's. I finally decided to get the problem fixed and contacted Tom (our resident A2 electrical guru) for advice. Option 1 was strip down of the starter and the second was a fitting a brand new unit. I went for the second option

Happy to report that Tom fitted the new unit this weekend which is a VW/Audi unit and cant praise him enough. Total dedication from start to finish and I can't believe why I left it so long!!

Tom also fitted a new genuine green coolant sensor. The sensor is located in a fairly in-accessible location and again, patience and perseverance was required (I would have given up a long time ago). We did notice slight corrosion on one of the terminal pins,so it was definetly on the way out. However here comes the interesting part. Having driven it for a couple of days, I've noticed that the MPG is creeping back up, so it looks as if the sensor was playing up (I dont believe this would have registered on VCDS as a fault).

So so happy with my A2 now!!! its booked in for a valet and drives and sounds exactly how I would want it.

Thanks again Tom for coming up to Scotland and fixing the car. I'm already preparing the next set of jobs.
 
Yes, a failing Temperature sender does not throw up VCDS errors because if the temperature sender is reading colt when it is hot, the ECU just thinks it is cold, not broken.

The fault is often only noticed when the car becomes difficult to start when cold but ok when hot or vice versa (because the engine is given the wrong fuel / air ratio).

So it is not surprising that your MPG is improving, your engine may have been over-fuelled for some time, but not significantly.

The fact that your temperature gauge was working fine was due to the fact that there are two senders in one, one for the ECU and one for the gauge (you may well be aware of this and Tom will have likely mentioned this, but for the benefit of other readers it is worth stating again here).

Great to hear that you have "discovered" Tom's services.

Steve B
 
On my TT you can get the climate unit to show various ecu parameters (49c is the coolant temp) - can you do the same on the A2? If so if you got it to show coolant temp would it be the sender for the ECU or the one for the dash gauge - just thinking you might be able to use this to diagnose a failing sensor.

Simon.
 
On my TT you can get the climate unit to show various ecu parameters (49c is the coolant temp) - can you do the same on the A2? If so if you got it to show coolant temp would it be the sender for the ECU or the one for the dash gauge - just thinking you might be able to use this to diagnose a failing sensor.

Simon.

I like that logic!!!

I suspect that it would use the same sensor that the dash instrument uses, but it would be great if it used the other one.

I am not sure how you make the TT indicate the coolant temperature on the climate control, but if that was on an early TT then it may well be possible on an A2, they share a few components, but I have not heard of this being done.

The other way to check is via VCDS, that can show the temperature readings of both sensors, but not everyone has VCDS. I am not sure if the cheap "dongles" that fin in the diagnostic port and transmit the data to your phone would show both readings from the sensor but they probably do (and for not a lot of money either.)

Steve B
 
Stripped loads of these starter motors with a high success rate of fixing apart from my own 1.4tdi polo it kept sticking until one day I was driving rather spiritedly due to being late and it never did it again lol
 
Hi Steve,

Doing a search there seems to be a real mix of posts on this topic, most say it doesn't work on the A2 but the codes are listed in the essential facts and tips thread; http://www.a2oc.net/forum/showthread.php?3512-Essential-facts-tips-amp-tricks

Obviously need to have an experiment!

Simon.

Had a play with the climate last night and couldnt get it to go into diagnostic mode so if nobody else has manged this then it wants removing from the essential facts and tips thread to avoid more fear and confusion.

Simon.
 
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