Hello All,
I have been reading around for the answer to my problem and seem to have pinpointed it but want to get the more professional opinions before I pull the trigger on purchasing ANOTHER part!
He is the synopsis; I have a 2000 VW Jetta ALH Automatic, I just had the head rebuilt, put a new VNT 15 on it, performed a full timing belt job, installed a new radiator, oil cooler, rebuilt injectors with new nozzels, replaced the battery with a more beefy 900 CCA one and installed an EGR delete. I checked the timing after installing the new timing belt and the timing is just slightly advanced.
The car starts like a dream majority of the time. I have recently been encountering an occasional hard start problem. It can be cold or warm and it doesnt make a difference. Prior to performing all the work listed above I could not get the car to turn over so I pushed it into the garage and began all the work listed above prior to installing the new battery. At that point it was a cold day and I figured something of the massive amount of work I was about to do would fix it. That was my first encounter of the problem. I performed all the work and it fired right up no issues. Drove it for roughly 300 miles with the remaining fuel in the tank before filling it up. Went out to start it one cold morning and it would just crank, no start but sounded like a slow crank. Figured maybe the fuel was bad since I had just filled up the tank the prior day so i threw in some diesel 911 filter and tank. No help. Tried a shot of starter spray and a jump and it fired up after a little bit of a crank. So I replaced the battery. Had been starting like a dream. Today I came out from work cranked no start. Tried a couple times with no luck. Finally I decided to just let her crank in hopes eventually it would turn over prior to draining the battery since it is such a new battery. After a long crank it slowly sputtered to life. Today it is warmer out (about 27F) rather than the 16F it was last time I had the issue. Prior to all the work performed above I had just installed a newly rebuilt alternator. The previous owner had already had a new glow plug harness and plugs installed about 10,000 miles ago he had also replaced the starter about 4 years ago when the last time was he replaced the battery. It has a newer crank position sensor and speed sensors as well as the newer gray 109 relay.
The times the car just cranks the glow plug light comes on as normal and stays for quite a few seconds as normal before turning off and me attempting to turn the car over.
With all this said, I am thinking about throwing a lift pump in the tank in hopes of this solving the problem but wanted to get opinions on it before throwing close to another $400 bucks at the car. It has 300,000 miles on it but I was hoping to have a reliable ALH in the end... Does all of my ranting sound like a loss of prime issue or is there somthing else I should be looking at or taking into consideration. Additionally, I started it this morning in 2F no issues, glow plug light came on turned off cranked and instantly fired right up. So why in the afternoon would it take a roughly 15 second crank to sputter to life?! Once getting home I looked at the clear line from the fuel filter and there was no signs of bubbles while the car was running.
I should mention the previous owner had taken it to the dealer roughly 6 years ago for a new injector pump. So I am hoping to safely rule that out of the question as there appears to be no sign of leaks around the pump at all and is not making any noises. Additionally the car is throwing no codes other than the ones from the EGR delete.
Any help is appreciated! Thank you in advance!
I have been reading around for the answer to my problem and seem to have pinpointed it but want to get the more professional opinions before I pull the trigger on purchasing ANOTHER part!
He is the synopsis; I have a 2000 VW Jetta ALH Automatic, I just had the head rebuilt, put a new VNT 15 on it, performed a full timing belt job, installed a new radiator, oil cooler, rebuilt injectors with new nozzels, replaced the battery with a more beefy 900 CCA one and installed an EGR delete. I checked the timing after installing the new timing belt and the timing is just slightly advanced.
The car starts like a dream majority of the time. I have recently been encountering an occasional hard start problem. It can be cold or warm and it doesnt make a difference. Prior to performing all the work listed above I could not get the car to turn over so I pushed it into the garage and began all the work listed above prior to installing the new battery. At that point it was a cold day and I figured something of the massive amount of work I was about to do would fix it. That was my first encounter of the problem. I performed all the work and it fired right up no issues. Drove it for roughly 300 miles with the remaining fuel in the tank before filling it up. Went out to start it one cold morning and it would just crank, no start but sounded like a slow crank. Figured maybe the fuel was bad since I had just filled up the tank the prior day so i threw in some diesel 911 filter and tank. No help. Tried a shot of starter spray and a jump and it fired up after a little bit of a crank. So I replaced the battery. Had been starting like a dream. Today I came out from work cranked no start. Tried a couple times with no luck. Finally I decided to just let her crank in hopes eventually it would turn over prior to draining the battery since it is such a new battery. After a long crank it slowly sputtered to life. Today it is warmer out (about 27F) rather than the 16F it was last time I had the issue. Prior to all the work performed above I had just installed a newly rebuilt alternator. The previous owner had already had a new glow plug harness and plugs installed about 10,000 miles ago he had also replaced the starter about 4 years ago when the last time was he replaced the battery. It has a newer crank position sensor and speed sensors as well as the newer gray 109 relay.
The times the car just cranks the glow plug light comes on as normal and stays for quite a few seconds as normal before turning off and me attempting to turn the car over.
With all this said, I am thinking about throwing a lift pump in the tank in hopes of this solving the problem but wanted to get opinions on it before throwing close to another $400 bucks at the car. It has 300,000 miles on it but I was hoping to have a reliable ALH in the end... Does all of my ranting sound like a loss of prime issue or is there somthing else I should be looking at or taking into consideration. Additionally, I started it this morning in 2F no issues, glow plug light came on turned off cranked and instantly fired right up. So why in the afternoon would it take a roughly 15 second crank to sputter to life?! Once getting home I looked at the clear line from the fuel filter and there was no signs of bubbles while the car was running.
I should mention the previous owner had taken it to the dealer roughly 6 years ago for a new injector pump. So I am hoping to safely rule that out of the question as there appears to be no sign of leaks around the pump at all and is not making any noises. Additionally the car is throwing no codes other than the ones from the EGR delete.
Any help is appreciated! Thank you in advance!