Starting Issue On 1.8T Sharan

[ric220]

Hi all. I hope you can help with an odd starting problem. A couple of weeks ago I ran out of petrol. Ever since then my Sharan 1.8t auto has hesitated when starting. Rather than starting instantly as previously, it now fires, nearly dies then starts properly and runs perfectly. But, when it starts there

[ric220]

PS the problem occurs regardless of whether the engine is hot or cold.

[BrianH]

Burning smell if its a mk2 I'd start looking at the fusebox in the engine bay just in case it's started melting.

[ric220]

Well, a new fuel filter has been fitted and the reluctance to start hasn't changed. The fusebox seems ok and anyway I'm not sure the burning smell isn't a figment of my imagination. Any other ideas? Thanks a lot.

[chrispb123456]

When you try starting is the LED on the door flashing?

Thinking you have a dodgy relay 30 that may be what you can smell burning.

[BrianH]

If that isn't showing anything out of the ordinary then it might be worth a scan with vcds if your able to do so just in case it is detecting something wrong (probabbly a long shot but worth a try.

Does the starter sound to turn over normally or does it struggle? if its struggling it may be a battery issue or worn starter.

 

Very few people on here with the petrol sharan models (not many more with the petrol galaxy models either) though that may just suggest they either go wrong in more obvious to fix ways than the diesel varients.

 

Relay 30 certainly worth a look as chris has mentioned.

 

Only other thing that comes to mind is the fuel pump, though its unlikly to do any damage to it running dry for a few seconds till the car would have died anyway as it had run out of fuel, it seems too consistant to be down to picking up debris on the pickup from the tank.

[BrianH]

Actually one other thought is there any odd hissing sounds round the pedals (vaccum leak from the servo) or under the bonnet (leak from the line that feeds the servo)

[ric220]

Thanks all for the wealth of ideas and pointers.

Re relay 30 suggestion, the light on the door comes on (constant, not blinking) when the key

[BrianH]

That sounds normal with the led behaveour i think, fairly sure it flashes rapidly if it isn't seeing the key which would indicate the relay 30 issue.

The hissing is a vaccum leak. May or may not be the cause of it. If you can gain access to it find the leak and plug it in someway (pulling the hose off and putting your finger over it will do initally) and see if the problem persists. If it stops you've found the cause (and even if it doesn't stop fixing it would be a good idea). May have just got worse with time.

 

Only other thing i can think of is if the idle control valve is sticking?

[ric220]

Just to update, I dismantled the centre console and identified the hiss. It comes from a pair of green and black air lines connected to the blower speed control. No sign of a split - it hisses when not connected to the rotary dial, and also when not. It just seems happiest hissing (but goes away when I block off the vacuum one). Blocking it off however doesn't affect the starting issue. Think I'm going to have to get friend with ecu reader to run a check. I'll keep you posted. Cheers

[BrianH]

you might have better luck with vcds if you have a laptop you can connect up?

 

only other thing i can think of is if the idle control valve (assuming the sharan has one) isn't working as well as it should be - easiest way to rule this out is to try starting with your foot slightly down on the acclerator. If it starts and stays running like that try cleaning the icv first it may be sticking. Though no reason running out of fuel should be casuing that (could be a coincidence though)