A3 2007 BKD 8P 140bhp start issues

[pumi63]

Good evening all ,
I am new to this forum and would appreciate any help or advice please .

My trusted and reliable car has covered 150k miles but she has developed problems starting recently . I had the glow plugs and a new battery replaced a few months back but the car starts erratically now . It might start first time but a few hours later , it can take 3 or 4 cranks before she fires up . But there are days when it may take 3 or 4 starts and stalling before starting up and hours later she will start after just one turn of the key . There are no warning lights on the dash either .

The timing belt was changed a couple of years ago so that should be ok , in fact i had the top end done following fitment of the wrong belt by a dozy mechanic .

Any ideas or help towards a plausible explanation would be appreciated before winter arrives .

Thank you

 

[kcpism]

I had a very similar issue on my old Golf 1.9TDi and it drove me insane trying to fault find...

IIRC relay 107 (or 109) whichever one which is responsible for the glow plugs will most likely be tired. If you open it up it will likely be dull copper and not shiny like new. My fix was a £1 replacement from the breakers yard as opposed to ~£22 for VW.

 

[pumi63]

Good evening Kcpism ,

Thank you for replying . I had a hunch that when the mechanic changed the glow plugs , he should have changed what i guess would be the controller unit too .
I had the glow plugs changed on my BMW 535d which has now covered just under 293 000 miles and the technician advised replacement of the plug controller as they do tend to fail .

I thank you for your advice and will try this at the weekend , or Monday depending on my head , following the England -Italy clash and a few pints , lol .

Thank you

 

[kcpism]

How did it go? Curious to see if it was the issue I suggested…

 

[pumi63]

Hello everybody ,
My apologies for the late response , as the car seems to have developed more symptoms that my Dr . sorry mechanic could not diagnose .
Car still has the cranks before starting issue followed by a nice cloud of smoke . It has now started shaking in the cabin whilst driving and gets worse when AC is on ( blows nice and cold by the way ) . The car seems to have gone into a limp mode with engine symbol lit .
So , took it to my local mechanic and left it with him 4 days , and he could not replicate the issues but he got me sitting down before he said that it could be dodgy fuel injectors , worn cam-shaft , dodgy wiring loom ... and the cost for all of this including labor is ..... £ 4000 .
How can it cost so much ? , he said an injector is approx. £ 400 , camshaft is over £300 and i thought is it a supercar or what ?
Why did it start shaking all of a sudden and why the loss of power . It's not a light switch where one minute it's fine and flick the switch and it's gone bust !!

Help please , as i do not want to put a good family friend down !! ( that is the car )

 

[pumi63]

Hello ,

Mechanic still has the car but i am wondering if i should add a couple of bottles of Forte and let her rip on the highway and then check for shake and shivers .
If all is well then welcome patient back home else try the loom , the glow plug relay which the mechanic didn't bother to check .
I don't believe that a camshaft would suddenly go duff !!
Is Terraclean worth trying but car has no DPF , thank god !