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96 jetta no start

I have a 96 Jetta GL III 2.0 ABA engine auto trans. Drove 1 block from home yesterday and it just died. Pushed it home and it sits in the driveway. Do not have any spark. Changed coil, dist cap, rotor and plug wires with known good ones. Put the code reader on and had P341 -camshaft sensor code set. Cleared the code and cranked the engine a few times to see if code would reset. It didn't. I pulled the timing belt cover back enough to see that the belt was not broken but does have a lot of small cracks and should be replaced. I would like to find the root cause of the problem. My question is if the belt jumped enough teeth to kill the engine, could the P0341 code have been set because of it? I did not see the "check engine" light before it died. Will a camshaft sensor problem cause a no spark condition? I didn't yet perform all of the tests outlined by Bentley but i do have battery voltage at the coil. Thanks for any help. Rich

Reply to
rg
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I vote timing belt! If some teeth broke then the timing would change which could throw the camshaft sensor code and your engine will possibly die and not restart. The camshaft sensor on your 2.0 engine is the hall sensor inside of the distributor and should not stop your engine from running. If the distributor shifts a little out of time, due to a tooth change, then the ECM will notice that and throw a code. That makes sense to me!

You need to check the timing belt alignment first.

Reply to
dave AKA vwdoc1

The spark is basically "triggered" by the crank position sensor (engine speed sensor) and if it goes bad you probably will get no spark. If the ign. coil goes bad you probably will get no spark. If the ign switch goes bad you could possibly get no spark. I have not checked the spark after a 2.0l engine breaks its belt. :-( If the timing belt breaks then the engine usually has a different sound while you crank it over.

Where/how did you test the spark?

Reply to
dave AKA vwdoc1

The problem was the timing belt. I've been working on cars for about

40 years so I'm ashamed to admit that when I first had the dist cap off I didn't turn the eng>The spark is basically "triggered" by the crank position sensor (engine
Reply to
rg

congrats! be proud that YOU found that problem! ;-)

I had a timing belt on an Audi 5000 that had not broken and all of the teeth were present. The engine would start sometimes and then would sound like the timing belt was gone, and then start again. The teeth were compressing like they were hollow on the inside. A new belt and all was right, but I learned a lesson there about the timing belts..................best to change them when in doubt! Also had another vehicle 1992 Jetta 8v reman engine that would start sometimes and then sound like the timing belt went. Let it sit for 15 minutes and it would start and die again. It was the oil pump with so much pressure that it caused the lifters to pump up and keep the valves open. THAT one was a challenge that another shop couldn't handle!

I am constantly learning!

Reply to
dave AKA vwdoc1

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