2009 1.9td Cold Starts Fine, But Refuses To Restart After Short Journe

[MrF]

Hi all, looking for some pointers on what to check, as this has me baffled.

 

My wife has a 2005 1.9td galaxy with the we think 130ps engine in it.

During a cold start, the car always starts fine, no problems. However when she turns it off in a few miles or so to run in somewhere or drop the kids off etc, it intermittently refuses to start easily, and once its started after much cranking it occasionally cuts out, or is very down on power.

If we take it on a longer run, say a hours drive away, its well behaved, and it seems to be once its warm we can't get it to reproduce this fault. And it doesn't do it every day on the same short journey either.

One time last week she arrived having driven 8 miles with it refusing to go over 30mph and ignoring pedal input, but while I was getting the computer and obdII dongle to look it stalled, and once it had been restarted it was perfect. So I think its getting into some fault condition, which only clears when the ignition is cut and started again, and initiates a computer reboot. Our local dealership won't take the car in to fix it until it exhibits the fault in front of them so I'm under pressure to diagnose or repair it if possible.

 

Ive connected a obd2 dongle and tried to read the fault codes out with torque on android, but the software says no fault codes although I can see all the gauges/sensors in the realtime output. So I'm waiting for a usb dongle to come and try some known good software, as I unplugged the intake air sensor, and the map sensors and still no codes (although the engine check light didnt light or the drivers door led start flashing either?). I've also changed the battery in case one cell had begun to go bad, although that doesn't fit the starting from cold scenario either, replaced the fuel filter but these are all clutching at straws in the dark.

 

Is there anything I can be checking in the meantime which fits these symptoms, or is it a case of waiting for the code reader setup to arrive and hoping it has more information?

[chrispb123456]

Maybe a faulty crank or cam sensor, should show up when codes read.

[MrF]

Indeed, a cracking guess!

3 fault code reader leads later, one that worked with vagcom finally arrived, and lo and behold, errors from the sensors I unplugged during diagnosis and one complaining about the tailgate contacts and some about the eiberspacher unit not firing up a couple of times, in fact positively noisy, so I cleared all the codes and went for a drive, stopping a few times at the side of the road to do warm starts to trigger it off again. And, bless, it played up properly, and on the computer "G60" and a "camshaft position implausable". I know this can be a wiring or corroded plug issue too, but I've ordered the cam sensor as a precaution and Ill check out the wiring while Im changing it.

 

Ive ordered with two national spares chains so far, and the first cancelled my order due to no stock, and the second has just sat on the order not responding and when we phoned today, they cant say when it'll arrive, or what the situation is. So enough is enough, 120e at the dealership it is and arrives on wed afternoon. Maybe its the season to sell out of cam position sensors as the cheaper ones all seem to have disappeared off ebay too :)

 

Worth the pain, since now we have a diagnostic setup that can read the car setup. I'm sure as the car ages its going to be a useful thing to have.

Its probably old news to everyone else that torque and the other obdII software fail to get the codes out. I must have tried 8 packages before getting vagcom going and having it work.