Guess what? Another no starter! Bad IP or starter?

Hey guys,

My 2002 jetta has been sitting behind the plant where i work for the last month as I have not had time to figure out why it hasn't been starting. Riding the bus isn't that bad but its getting old. I have not been using biodiesel in the car for the last year.

So, I looked through the FAQ for cold weather/no starting. I have electrical working, lights, the works. Engine cranks over quickly, but doesn't fire. It makes that weird spooling/whirring when it doesn't catch. I looked through some threads and one guy described the noise pretty well and it was determined to be the starter. But I didn't see anything in the no start faq about the starter. Does this sound plausible? How much does one cost and how do you install it? FYI the glow plugs/harness was supposedly fixed a few months back after the car wouldn't start when i came back from a trip. There is no fault light showing on the dash.

Now compounding the problem is the fact that my injector pump is leaking from using 100% biodiesel and then switching back to regular petrol. The seals swelled and then shrank I think. However despite this, I think i confirmed that fuel was getting to the engine. I took off the main injector line (the one you have to bleed out when you change the fuel filter). And there was plenty of fuel shooting out of it. However I can't confirm its the right psi, or quantity of fuel. Anyone know how much a new IP/rebuild costs? Im guessing its pretty pricey. Is this something I could do myself? I have found a Viton Seals kit from dieselgeeks that looks pretty cool. I have access to tools at work but I have very limited experience at car maitenance.

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.

good evening. Sounds like you may have several potential problems, but none of which are related to the starter (yet, but keep cranking and that may change). if your engine is cranking rapidly, that 100% rules out the starter. The only thing that you have said that isn't contradicting is that you ran B100 and the car won't run. Based on eveything you have said, I would start back to how the car started a month prior, how well it ran over that month, and all maint. history on common TDI engine trouble areas. If you have no probs riding the bus, you have the wrong car and you definetly don't want to use biodiesel like you say you've been using. how many miles on the car?

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