tallpaul

So I just took my car out of storage and haven't been able to get it running yet, at least not well. I've read through the FAQ's and have a bunch of things I'm going to check, but thought I'd ask for ideas since I don't think my symptoms fit that well with what I've read so far.

Here's the sequence of events:

1. Walk up to car after it's been sitting for 10 months, put in new clean fuel and replace fuel filter. Won't start.
2. Replace blown ECU fuse and reconnect a ground strap in the ECU wiring harness (I had the whole interior removed and was just putting it back together). Charge battery. Engine fires up, sounds a little rough, like it missing one cylinder every so often and has a hard time finding idle.
3. Car will start for the next 2 days, then nothing, only cranks, but won't fire.
4. I check the fuel pump and it won't run when I jumper the fuel pump fuse. I confirmed that I was getting 12V at the connector and decided the fuel pump was dead.
5. Replaced fuel pump. Had to charge battery again. Engine cranked for a while and then fired. Still ran a little rough, I ran it up to 2krpm to charge the battery, then it dropped speed, stumbled for a while and then died.
6. It will crank and fire, but will stumble lik only one or 2 cylinders are firing and then die in about 10 seconds or less regardless of throttle position.
7. I've tried jumping the cam position sensor, but that didn't make a difference. I didn't really expect it to since I don't think the car would run at all if it was bad.

Here's the things I'm going to check:
1. ISV, but since it won't run with the throttle open either, I don't think this is it.
2. POS, but it seems like most of the time when these fail it's one channel at a time and the car will still run. My car when from running pretty normal to stumbling all at once.
3. Spark plugs and wires. Checking just because.
4. MAF, but if this malfunctioned, shouldn't it go into limp home mode and still run?

I'm open to other suggestions. I'm kind of suspect of the charging system (battery and alternator), but it won't even run with a car charger in "start" mode. The car has an MTM stg1 chip if that makes any difference.

thanks,
Paul

JAMS6

Paul,
Did you check that the ecu didn't get wet? How about the ground strap on the coilpacks? Have you been able to pull the injector leads one by one to see if its firing or not on certain cylinders? Have you scanned it with a vag-com?
It shouldn't be your CPS since that would render your car dead. I wouldn't think the ISV would have any bearing on this issue. Doubt it on the POS too. It would run w/o the maf, probably not well but would run. If you're still in the Atown area, you have a few people around who have vag-coms. Contact me off list and maybe I can hook you up with one.

JAMS6

Oh yeah, and did you check for bigass vacuum leaks? I would think you'd hear it but who knows.

tallpaul

Quick update:
I misspoke on the ECU fuse, it was actually another 5 amp fuse under the rear driver side seat that was blown, I actually have no idea what it's for. Can anyone tell me what the Bosch control unit is under there?
I've cleaned the ISV, but it looked fine and moved freely beforehand and made no difference.
I've swapped the POS's around and it still won't run, but seem to run smoother for the few seconds before it dies. This might lead me to believe they need to be replaced, but I don't think that they're the root cause (could be wrong).
I've pulled the plugs and they all look ok and were still seated. They were wet with fuel, so it looks more like a spark or air issue. The rest of the plug wiring and coils "look" good, but I didn't check anything beyond visual.
I checked the error codes and I got one for the CPS (2113), but that could have been old since I was playing with the plug a few days ago. I cleared it and nothing new comes up. Either way I tried the jumper again (jumped pins 2 and 3) and it actually made things worse, the car wouldn't even fire. After I removed the jumper and plugged it back in, the car would fire and then die promptly again. Does that make sense?

tallpaul

Jason,

Thanks for the reply, I'll shoot you a PM about the VAG-COM. I looked at the ECU and it was dry. I haven't checked the coil ground strap, but I'll do that next. I don't see any big vacuum leaks, but I'll poke around some more.

tallpaul

I check grounds and pulled every plug I could find and reseated them, no go. I test the fuel supply and that's good. It got to be an air or spark problem. What would let the car run for a few seconds and than make it die?

thanks,
Paul

tallpaul

So now I've replaced the ignition switch and borrowed some good POS's and still can't get it to start. I pulled the coils and plugs out and grounded them on the valve cover and could see that I was getting spark on all the coils. I pulled the fuel rail/injectors and set it on some paper towel and turned it over for a second or two and got a half dollar sized wet spot under all the injectors, so that seemed good.
Anybody have any other ideas on why it won't start? I'm not getting any codes except for the G28 speed sensor (2111), but i've heard that it comes up sometimes when the engine won't start. Either way, i checked the resistance and got a 1k ohm across 1 and 2 and open across 1-3 and 2-3. I tried pulling the sensor out, but the o-ring seems stuck, anyone else have that problem?

thanks in advance for any help.

Paul

UrSobsessed

Check all of your intake hoses?

tallpaul

Hoses all look good. Does anyone know how to check the MAF? I didn't see anything in the FAQ.

thanks,
Paul

UrSobsessed

When you reset the electrical connections (plugs), make sure you push in on the wires themselves, the pins sometimes push out of the clip. This happened to me with my MAF and the CPS at different times.

The MAF can be taken out and sprayed with MAF cleaner (without touching anything inside. This really helped my car run a lot better, as my MAF probably had never been cleaned in the 140k of its life.