Rough Starting All Year Round

I cannot for the life of me find the thread I swear I saw earlier in the week here regarding rough starting on MK4 TDIs so I'll make this as brief as I can.

For the time I've owned my Jetta, starting has always been rough. To clarify, it took at least 5-9 seconds of cranking to start the vehicle even when the weather was hot or the engine was warm. I know a few others on here have experienced the same issue.

Well, long story short, I was visiting a mechanic when my starter motor went belly up (silver lining, towing is expensive it was hella convenient to have it happen where it did).

Upon replacing the starter motor, I expected to still have rough starts. I was wrong. I now have the engine cranking in 2-4 seconds. Sounds a lot healthier than it was prior.

It's also critical to point out that this was a brand new starter, not a used or rebuilt.

Hope this helps someone else out there.

Another thing to address for starting concerns, I had a no-start issue about a week ago. The cable that runs from the battery terminal to the starter had finally decapitated itself from the stock set-up. A new 1 gauge wire installed between the 2 points alleviated my concern.

Thanks for following up.

I'd have to say that poor connections were likely the original sin(s). Those resulted in your starter prematurely failing. If you still have that old cable peel back the insulation and have a peek- likely a ton of corrosion: I did that once to a friend's car's cable- it poured out green powder!

I've got a rebuilt starter in my wife's car. It's been working great for a good 1 1/2 years now: might be longer? would have to look at my records. I replaced it because I didn't like the slow cranking speed of the original: I'd first verified connections were all good/healthy. That original is sitting on a bench waiting for me to clean and, if necessary, rebuild. When the replacement fails I'll put the refurb'd original back in and get the failed one replaced so I can set it on the shelf in reserve.

To answer your curiosity in regards to the cable, yes, quite a bit of corrosion, frayed strands etc. Perhaps replacement of the motor was just that extra bit that was needed to damage the cable beyond but either way it was in bad. As for the starter motor that failed, my mechanic ran another wire directly to the starter motor that did not let it start. I believe he mentioned the bearings and the interlocking gears had gone so it was more like everything failed at once.

Good for another 17 years!

I'm hoping to make the 1,000,000 KM club (as I'm certain the display rolls back to 0 after the 999,999 km is reached)$

TDIFan1989 said:

I'm hoping to make the 1,000,000 KM club (as I'm certain the display rolls back to 0 after the 999,999 km is reached)$

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Does the ECU maintain the KMs? Or is it pulled from the cluster?

I've got no idea. I know the cluster only has 6 digit positions on mine so that's rolling back to 0 for sure.

Glow plugs, Test them with a Multimeter, + on the top of glowplug and neg near the base of glowplug on block should read not infinity. http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=79819
Could also be a plugged fuel filter.

indysoto said:

Glow plugs, Test them with a Multimeter, + on the top of glowplug and neg near the base of glowplug on block should read not infinity. http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=79819
Could also be a plugged fuel filter.

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To clarify, the issue was strictly related to the starter motor failing but more importantly that the older model starter motors simply did not cut it for speed and cranking power (as well as the interlocking gears being damaged/replaced). This had nothing to do with glow-plug/fuel filter.

TDIFan1989 said:

To clarify, the issue was strictly related to the starter motor failing but more importantly that the older model starter motors simply did not cut it for speed and cranking power (as well as the interlocking gears being damaged/replaced). This had nothing to do with glow-plug/fuel filter.

Click to expand...

Nice! must have glossed over that.. Oops. ERRRrrr(says the starter)