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98 Beetle TDI Slow to Start etc.

Last week we bought 1998 Beetle TDI for commute. The car has 82K miles on it and runs pretty well. Couple of questions though:

  1. It takes 3-4 seconds of the starter turning before the engine fires. Sometimes less but in general unusually long. This is the third diesel in our family - the others are 96 Passat TDI with
150K miles and 97 MB Diesel with 90K miles. They both start with the first turn of the starter regardless from the outside temperature. Is that normal for the Beetle TDI? What could be wrong? Otherwise the car runs smooth and quiet with enough power to maintain 80-100 mph effortlessly. No smoke and no oil burning.

  1. Does the Beetle have bottom engine cover? The Passat does but our Beetle doesn't have one. Is that normal or the cover is lost and I need to buy new one?

Thanks

D.

Reply to
DCM
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I suggest you have the compression checked along with the glowplugs. Those are the two things that are most often the problem. A high resistance connection in the battery/starter cables could also cause the problem.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan
3-4 seconds isn't long for a startup. But things I would check are:

1- Battery & cable connections

2- glow plugs- but if bad they usually turn the MIL on 3- pump timing being on the low side of the spec. 4- timing belt... was it replaced? 5-yes it should have lower engine cover but who cares since they always get ripped off.

effortlessly.

Reply to
Woodchuck

Thanks for the replies. Compression is fine. The battery was dead when I bought the car and I recharged it. It still a little shaky in this cold weather. This is the primary suspect and will be replaced by the end of the week. I don't know if the timing belt was replaced so I will install new one the first warmer day of the spring. How do you check the injection pump timing?

D.

Reply to
DCM

effortlessly.

A friend recently purchased a high miles "new" jetta tdi. He had the same starting delay. One morning it would not start at all. After much checking it turned out to be the "anti shutter" valve sticking. It's at the beginning of the aluminum intake manifold just past the rubber hose. Remove the large hose and you'll see it. It's purpose is to close when you shut off the engine to keep it from "shuttering" to a stop. Shine a light in there and hopefully you'll not see too much carbon build (another story) Put a small amount of wd-40 or the like on the ends of the shaft and try it out. You should have a belly pan to keep the engine clean. Better yet VW offers a steel belly pan that's almost bullet proof! Several online vendors carry them. For more info on both these items and more do a search at

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Jo Bo

Reply to
Jo Bo

Yes, weak battery will cause starting problems. If you have no records if t-belt was done then I wouldn't wait until spring. To check the injection pump timing it has to be done with the VW 5051/5052 or ross-tech kit.

Reply to
Woodchuck

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