My wife reversed the car off the drive and it stalled. She says it re- started once then stalled again. Now it won't start at all. The battery is healthy, turns the engine over but not a sign of firing. Where should I look first?
Petrol/diesel is first, then cambelt.
mrcheerful
Took a spark plug out - it had petrol on it but didn't produce a spark. A link to earth from the contact in the centre of the distributor cap didn't produce a spark so it's probably electornics. Into the garage on Monday.
I remember a similar problem with the sister-in-laws Micra. She drove it a few metres, stalled it and then it wouldn't restart. Something to do with a temperature sensor feeding a signal to the ECU which then doesn't clear. When you try to restart the engine the signal / information is still there so the ECU doesn't provide a spark. (Well something like that). Might be worth disconnecting the battery for 20 minutes or so and trying again.
Andy
The message from merlin contains these words:
If the cam-belt's gone then you wouldn't have got a spark anyway on most recent engines.
Tried it overnight but no change. Thanks for the suggestion.
I hope that's not it. Anyone know how much damage that's likely to do on the 2.0 petrol engine? Apparently it's the old VW engine from the Golf GTi. And how I can I find out without a major disassembly job?
What does it sound like whist cranking? If it sounds completely normal, then the belt is fine. If it sounds a bit odd, like there isn't any compression on some cylinders, then it's probably the belt.
Cheers,
Colin.
The top belt cover only has a couple of bolts, take it off and have a look, if it is the belt it will do damage, feasibly more than the vehicle is worth.
mrcheerful
Check the coil it's a common fault with the Sharan , I have changed 5 in the last year.
It was the HT coil had burned out. Garage man said it was common on that VW 2.0 petrol engine.
thank you for letting us know the result.
mrcheerful
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