Random long crank?

fdizz · Jul 18, 2013

My 2010 Golf will sometimes crank for 3 or 4 seconds before it starts. It will only happen if it's been sitting over night, never when it's being drivin during a normal day. It doesn't sputter or anything once it finally starts. I'm on my original battery and the little looking glass is half clear and half black? I'm hoping it's just the battery? Any other ideas? I've searched but can't find anything mk6 specific. Thanks for any input.

sflier · Jul 18, 2013

Yes, it's happened to me on occasion and others it seems too. There's a thread or two about it on the forum. I'm not sure anyone has definitively identified the issue, but I replaced my battery about two months ago and have not had it happen since.

Tweak3D · Jul 18, 2013

fdizz said:
My 2010 Golf will sometimes crank for 3 or 4 seconds before it starts. It will only happen if it's been sitting over night, never when it's being drivin during a normal day. It doesn't sputter or anything once it finally starts. I'm on my original battery and the little looking glass is half clear and half black? I'm hoping it's just the battery? Any other ideas? I've searched but can't find anything mk6 specific. Thanks for any input.

I have the same issue on occasion. Oddly enough, i'm not too far from you either

. I cleaned my battery terminals and now it doesn't happen that often any more, but am leaning towards my battery just aging and possibly needing a repalcement in the next year or so as it never use to do it.

fdizz · Jul 18, 2013

Tweak3D said:
I have the same issue on occasion. Oddly enough, i'm not too far from you either . I cleaned my battery terminals and now it doesn't happen that often any more, but am leaning towards my battery just aging and possibly needing a repalcement in the next year or so as it never use to do it.

Haha definitely not that far, I just bought a house in Eatonville. Right down the road from ya

. Mine doesn't seem to crank slow though, like a bad battery would. Just takes a long time to finally kick over. It's going to the shop next week to get some PM, so I'll have them test the battery I spose.

sflier · Jul 18, 2013

Mine didn't crank slowly either ... at least not that I noticed. But, I suspect it wasn't putting out its fully rated cranking amps. After I replaced the battery, it did seem to crank slightly faster. I have not had a long cranking start since.

fdizz · Jul 18, 2013

Well that makes me feel better. Thanks for the feed back. What does a new battery go for, for one of these?

azthegame · Jul 18, 2013

My golf cranked slowly, about 4 or 5 seconds, when it was about 1200miles. Never did it again though and I'm at 20.5k roughly.

Tweak3D · Jul 18, 2013

fdizz said:
Haha definitely not that far, I just bought a house in Eatonville. Right down the road from ya . Mine doesn't seem to crank slow though, like a bad battery would. Just takes a long time to finally kick over. It's going to the shop next week to get some PM, so I'll have them test the battery I spose.

yeah, mine woudl crank quickly, and would sometimes sound like it was trying to start, but would take a few.

Thoughts thus far is battery is growing weeker or possibly the valve that allows the fuel system to maintain pressure when off is leaking causing the fuel pressure to be too low to start the car. It doesn't happen regularly though so its tough to tell. I'll let you know if I find anything else

fdizz · Jul 19, 2013

I'll let you know if I find anything else

Right on, thanks bud.

toaster · Jul 19, 2013

My 2010 was also having a "random long crank" problem more and more this year once spring broke as i drove my other car more and it had a chance to sit days at a time. I see you said yours didnt stumble /sputter once it did start.... mine did a handful of times but not everytime i had a long crank.

After taking it to the dealer and them not finding anything I asked a diesel mechanic at work and he suggested to try changing the fuel filter (i had 17k on mine). After doing that the problem immediately went away.

Im not sure if i got some bad fuel along the way or what caused it. the filter was brown but the fuel in the canister still looked clear (not sure what they should look like at the regular interval since this was my first time changing it myself)

fdizz · Jul 25, 2013

Tweak3D said:
causing the fuel pressure to be too low to start the car.

Ding ding.. Have It at my guru now getting my T-belt done and had him check the battery. Battery is perfect...

At around 30k my dealer told me there was some sort of TSB for the fuel system?? Well long story short they replaced the stock pinch clamps on all the fuel lines going into filter housing with the kind that screw in. sounds like they are not holding a seal very well and are letting pressure escape which is why I have a hard start if it sits for a day or so.. We will see if that fixes the problem when I pick her up.

Tweak3D · Jul 26, 2013

fdizz said:
Ding ding.. Have It at my guru now getting my T-belt done and had him check the battery. Battery is perfect...

At around 30k my dealer told me there was some sort of TSB for the fuel system?? Well long story short they replaced the stock pinch clamps on all the fuel lines going into filter housing with the kind that screw in. sounds like they are not holding a seal very well and are letting pressure escape which is why I have a hard start if it sits for a day or so.. We will see if that fixes the problem when I pick her up.

I'll have to check mine out. I've also had the issue with just my car sitting for 12 hours while I am at work and the care is in the sun so perhaps the heat is causing expansion and leakage from a bad fitting not present in cooler weather.

I also start running Power Service again as I had stopped mid winter just before this whole issue began (late winter/early spring). Not saying it will fix the issue, but its the only thing i've personally changed since the issue arose. I will check everything out and report back.

btw, do you have a diesel/vw guru you are going to in the area or are you driving elsewhere?

fdizz · Jul 26, 2013

Chris Up at Fine Tuning in Seattle. Dude was born out of a vw I'm pretty sure.. haha

vwman2 · Jul 2, 2015

Just started having this same problem on our 2010'golf. Has the stock pinch clamps the problem?

Thanks
Jamie

jasong70 · Jul 4, 2015

I have the same symptoms. 2010 also. Not entirely sure but it seems like it happens after a few days of sitting. Not 100% sure.

Revpeach · Jul 4, 2015

Mine started random long cranks about a week before my battery quit. Showed 12V but had no amps and would not take a charge. Battery was only 3.5 years old but I have 82k miles on it. New battery and back to almost instant starts.

jasong70 · Jul 4, 2015

Was it random or all the time? Funny when I immediately shut the car off it restarts fast. If the battery was dying, wouldn't it do the long crank?

Revpeach said:
Mine started random long cranks about a week before my battery quit. Showed 12V but had no amps and would not take a charge. Battery was only 3.5 years old but I have 82k miles on it. New battery and back to almost instant starts.

Revpeach · Jul 5, 2015

There seemed to be no pattern. I first thought it was a fuel problem from letting the car sitting and not being used. Then the long cranks would show up while being daily driven. My unscientific 2 cents worth is that as the battery dies it cannot provide sufficient current to all the glow plugs thus creating the hard start.

Joel_S · Jul 5, 2015

My 2010 jsw does this randomly. No pattern to it what so ever. My battery still tests good, and there's no pattern to it. My car sits for months at a time because I daily drive my M5 now (for some odd reason I've been enjoying the 16mpg instead of my 45+ in the Jetta) and it started today after sitting for 3.5 weeks. I drove it across my parking lot at my apt and turned it off. When I restarted it it was fine. About an hour and a half later, long crank before start. I've always wondered if it was just me.

vwman2 · Jul 6, 2015

I want to say the batt was replaced 2 years ago with a OEM. I do see the batt light on when im cranking but I think it always is till it kicks over. doesnot crank slow...

Joel_S said:
My 2010 jsw does this randomly. No pattern to it what so ever. My battery still tests good, and there's no pattern to it. My car sits for months at a time because I daily drive my M5 now (for some odd reason I've been enjoying the 16mpg instead of my 45+ in the Jetta) and it started today after sitting for 3.5 weeks. I drove it across my parking lot at my apt and turned it off. When I restarted it it was fine. About an hour and a half later, long crank before start. I've always wondered if it was just me.

97B4TDi · Aug 28, 2019

I know I am resurrecting an old thread but did anyone track down their cause to this?

Just picked up a '13 JSW a month ago and I've experienced a few "long cranks" with no pattern as well.

Thank you!

Matt927 · Aug 29, 2019

Mine will still have a long crank, first start of the day only. Two taps on the throttle when the glow plugs are cycling before hitting the starter button again, the car fires right up.

ksing44 · Aug 30, 2019

There was another thread and a video about this for the first start of the day.

Increased Cranking Time When Starting

DiagnoseDan - VW golf 2.0TDI EA288 long crank diagnosis

97B4TDi · Aug 30, 2019

The EA288 video doesn’t apply to our cars we dont have the VVT system the 2014 cars do.

ksing44 · Aug 31, 2019

97B4TDi said:
The EA288 video doesn’t apply to our cars we do. It have the VVT system the 2014 cars do.

Thank you for the clarification!

My car really isn't bad at all. It starts instantly during the day, but the first start can take one or more extra spins of the starter. I've decided to not let that bother me. My 2010 Golf TDI has been and continues to be a wonderful car!

Matt927 · Sep 1, 2019

ksing44 said:
Thank you for the clarification!
My car really isn't bad at all. It starts instantly during the day, but the first start can take one or more extra spins of the starter. I've decided to not let that bother me. My 2010 Golf TDI has been and continues to be a wonderful car!

My view as well.

ricohman · Sep 2, 2019

My new to me 2013 wagon did this as well.
A new battery solved the issue. The old battery tested well. But at 5 years old it must have been on its last legs.

Jaxon · Sep 30, 2019

I'm having a very similar issue with my 2012 Golf Sportwagen A6. Car has 292,000 kms on it.

I bought it a year ago, and it would randomly take a long time to start, for the first start of the day. Didn't matter if it was +20 or - 20. Car always started. Maybe 1 in 20 times would require extended cranking.

This spring it got a lot worse. Now it's 1 in 2 first starts of the day.

I always let the glow plugs cycle. The car will spin and spin and spin. I stop, key off, cycle plugs and try again. Sometimes I need to do this a third time, car will start, run rough for a couple seconds, then works perfect. I have tried just spinning it over until it starts, eventually the car starts flashing low oil pressure on the dash. I don't think it's fuel draining back because I left the car parked for 6 weeks this summer while I drove my other car, and when I got back to it, the battery didn't have much juice, but it still started up right away after a few slow cranks. Car has NOT had the fix, and the condition of the DPF is unknown - car seems to run good, and gets acceptable fuel milage.

Thoughts?

travis45 · Oct 4, 2019

Does it look like this?

https://youtu.be/CCtTNUhlS1Y

super1 · Oct 5, 2019

Jaxon said:
I'm having a very similar issue with my 2012 Golf Sportwagen A6. Car has 292,000 kms on it.

I bought it a year ago, and it would randomly take a long time to start, for the first start of the day. Didn't matter if it was +20 or - 20. Car always started. Maybe 1 in 20 times would require extended cranking.

This spring it got a lot worse. Now it's 1 in 2 first starts of the day.

I always let the glow plugs cycle. The car will spin and spin and spin. I stop, key off, cycle plugs and try again. Sometimes I need to do this a third time, car will start, run rough for a couple seconds, then works perfect. I have tried just spinning it over until it starts, eventually the car starts flashing low oil pressure on the dash. I don't think it's fuel draining back because I left the car parked for 6 weeks this summer while I drove my other car, and when I got back to it, the battery didn't have much juice, but it still started up right away after a few slow cranks. Car has NOT had the fix, and the condition of the DPF is unknown - car seems to run good, and gets acceptable fuel milage.

Thoughts?

You look at this video?

https://youtu.be/DXvHdmq0reA

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Random long crank?

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

New member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Active member

Well-known member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member