1996 polo wont start.

[rev]

ok I was de icing the polo while it ticked over. once done I jumped in, tickled the throttle it spluttered a bit. so I let it tick over again. pressed the throttle, it died and now wont start. I can see nothing at all wrong.

any ideas??

1.4 1996  polo.

[tineca]

Got motion lotion in it?

[Maizetina]

Coil these are prone for faliure .

[rev]

3/4 of a tank in it and how can I test the coil?

[guz]

best way is borrow a know good one from a mate,
can't trust the new stuff I find

[gadgetgricey]

Water/condensation in the distributor....

Got a 1.4 P reg Auto. Started worked fine,but stalled and then refused to start about a mile away from home.
RAC man came out and cleaned out the dizzy and all was well.

Once all running gave it a good spray with WD40 etc, and has been fine for months.

Actually using this over my Xantia at the moment, as the heater in the Polo is hot within about 3 mins. The Xantia takes about 20mins to get luke warm.

Hopefully its the dizzy as its a cheap "fix"

Cheers

Dave

[rev]

I have taken the cap off and given it a good clean with wd, still no joy. someone on another forum has said it could be the temp sender?
any idea where that is?

[cobblers]

The temp sensor is common to go on these, it causes the engine to run very rich and overfuel til it soaks the plugs and causes the vehicle to not start when warm. Cold starts are suually OK.

It's a sensor on the passenger side of the cylinder head, usually 4 pin connector and usually Blue or Green, but I can't 100% remember. Unplug it, then hold your foot flat on the floor and turn the engine over for 10 seconds, then try and start as normal (leaving it unplugged).

[rev]

ta
just went and tried that, no luck.
I'm by no means a novice to cars, but this has stumped me totally.
the day before this happened we went out and gave her a good four hour gentle drive round, so this is totally unexpected.

[cobblers]

Is there a spark to be seen? The coilpacks are really common as well. Cheap to buy and universal across mid 90s VW stuff.

[damageandy]

start with the basics, checks its got a spark, check it gettin fuel.

[bortaf]

First thing i would check is for a live at the coil pack that stays live whilst you are cranking the car, ign switches can play up and loose the ign live at odd moments?
if you have a rev counter does the needle move when cranking? if not i'd susspect the CPS ?

[bstardchild]

Check the earth strap should be near the coil - I've known them break and then they won't start

[rev]

got a good spark, so I'm guessing no fuel now, I know 100% that there is fuel in the tank so going to start looking at the fuel system tomorrow.

[zoompod]

I've just had the same problem on my mums 97/98 1.4 polo, i narrowed it down to the fuel pump ( under the back seat in the tank and combined with the sender unit), the outlet pipes had gone brittle and snapped off, i put £20 second hand unit in and a new fuel pump relay and it fired up and ran ok, so it may be along those lines. It has let her down since once though when it petered out in traffic and stunk of fuel but it started straight away and has been fine since. hope this may help.

[rev]

that's what I was thinking zoompod, I do know to one that I might be able to strip the fuel pump out of, but would rather make sure first.
where is the fuel pump relay, or should I say which one in the fuse box is it lol

oh
happy new year

[rev]

well bizzarly got it going.
pulled the plugs and cranked it over, absolutely stunk of petrol, cleaned the plugs and after a fair bit of cranking she fired up.
gonna run her dry ish and fill up with 'v power' or something. instead of supermarket fuel.


anyone know where the fuel filter is on this model?

[bortaf]

If it stank of fuel it probably flooded, possably the temp sender as said earlyer, to start a flloded EFI hold the throttle pedal to the floor whilst cranking and the ecu will cut the fuel but i find most modern plugs wont take getting soaked like older plugs did and still fire ?

[bstardchild]

Jan 1, 2015 15:04:05 GMT rev said:

well bizzarly got it going.
pulled the plugs and cranked it over, absolutely stunk of petrol, cleaned the plugs and after a fair bit of cranking she fired up.
gonna run her dry ish and fill up with 'v power' or something. instead of supermarket fuel.


anyone know where the fuel filter is on this model?

Don't bother with fancy fuel above 95 RON - makes no difference at all on a Polo 1.4 - branded 95 is fine if you want to avoid supermarket fuel

Sounds like you had a dose of bore wash if you needed to still crank it for a while even after cleaning the plugs

[rev]

think I'm going to change the plugs and temp sender asap anyway after this, the missus uses the car for work when I'm not there, so we need the reliability back.

how about this for a funny.
my brother came over to help me, when we got it going we took her out for a spin on a dead straight road, I was in my non turbo Subaru forester 2.0ltr, and my bro took the polo out.

I couldn't keep up....... always new she was nippy for a little-un but now its confirmed..
he took great delight in calling me loser all night lol