A3 Hard Morning Starting, Rough Idle

Apr 03, 2007 5 Replies
M

Late 1995 Jetta GLS, 2.0 liter, manual tranny, 110kmiles. Engine check light NOT on, haven't seen it even flicker. Come to think of it, think I'll watch it on startup this morning and make sure it's still working ;)



Takes several seconds for the engine to catch in the morning. In the afternoon, it's fine. Things I've done recently (more maintenance than anything)


- cap & rotor



- air filter



- fuel line rubber hoses



Gave the intake hose a QUICK look when changing the front fuel line hose and didn't see anything bad, but I didn't look at it closely...



Soon to be done:


- spark plugs



- fuel filter



- 'in tank' fuel injector cleaner (Chevron, Red Line, etc)



Also idles a bit rough, but I'm thinking that could be motor mounts being old.



Other ideas?



Mark '95 Jetta GLS


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S

Old spark plug wires can cause hard starts and rough idles.

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R

A friend had a similar problem with her '96 Jetta. Very hard to start in the morning (several 15 second cranking sessions at the worst). Once it started, it did not have any problems.

A fine mist of water around the coil made the problem appear any time of day. Coil removed and inspected. There seemed to be a line of carbon deposits (?) up along the plastic around the high voltage port. Coil replaced and problem noticeably diminished. Then spark plugs were replaced and the problem went away.

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M

OK, you guys have convinced me to get out the mist bottle and get up early one morning and look for spark leaks.

Thanks, Mark '95 Jetta GLS

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D

If that ign coil is bad I only recommend buying the coil (AKA ign transformer) from the dealer!! It could also be delivering a very weak spark and not spark elsewhere. I don't think I have seen this problem throw a MIL either. :-)

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P

Especially if it's OBD-I. A used ign coil with the green stick on it from Ebay or a bone-yard could be the way to go. I don't know how much the dealer sells these. My original A3 coil is still going with over 210K miles on it.

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