Golf starts then fades out;(

Low fuel pressure caused by a blocked filter in the pump. They are take apartable by someone with a bit of nouse. A fuel pressure check will show it up quickly. It is a common problem.

Thanks for that Mr C in the end it turned out that there is an immobiliser fitted that sometimes misbehaves and causes that according to the original owner!.

Advised him to remove the bl^^dy thing, no one is likely to nick it!..

If the immobiliser (assuming the standard VW one) is triggering you'll probably see a key symbol on the dash when it fails. Running for a few seconds is typical, and a 2000 car will almost certainly have a factory immobiliser.

The pickup coil around the ignition lock is often the problem. It reads a RFID chip in the key- do you have a spare?

You cannot remove it without having the engine ECU remapped to suit. The immobiliser is built into the instrument ECU, and that talks to the engine ECU to enable starting.

If you have access to VCDS it will show the fault "engine start blocked by immobiliser".

No its an add on, it's got a two pronged key you have to insert in it.

You have to open the car with the key fob, get in and then lock the doors with the standard keyfob, plug in the immobiliser key, then unlock the car gain whilst still in it again, and then the car will start!

Bloody amazing but it seems its been like that for years so says the original owner!!...

Get rid of it :-)

Yes but he's very short of the readies at the moment etc but now we have the immobiliser removed it runs fine its done relatively few miles..

I meant the immobiliser :-)

Gone .. to a better place;!...