2006 BRM No Start

So I've been scratching my head for a couple days here hunting for a possible cause, and serching this forum for helpful tips. I've exhausted all my ideas so I'm hoping someone can help me. I've got a 2006 Jetta TDI with the BRM engine and it will not start.

I was driving home the other day and I started to notice my cruise wandering about 3 km/h above and below my set point which it never does. I removed cruise control and noticed a lack of power but all sounded ok and no odd vibrations or anything so I kept on driving. I stopped at an intersection and it was idling normally but when I went to take off (manual trans) it almost died so I revved it more and it took almost half throttle to get any rpm, tried to go again and it stalled. I towed it home and I've been trying to start it ever since with no luck.

It will crank over all day at 250 on the tach, starter sounds normal but won't even try and catch. I've checked the in tank fuel pump and I got 1.5L/min flow, I removed the fuel filter, drained and cleaned the housing. I checked for codes and found none except for a p0230 which is a fuel pump control circuit that I'm pretty sure I caused by removing the pump relay and jumping it so it'll pump. I've pulled the timing cover and it all looks good ( 80,000 KMS since I changed it last). I removed and inspected all the loom from the injector plug at the head to the top of the frame rail. I found 2.4V with key on at each injector by back probing the plug at the head. I tried disconnecting my battery for a couple hours. I even pulled the valve cover just to have a look, I did the cam and lifters about 40,000 KMS ago. I'm stumped... I should mention I do have an OBDEleven device but my buddy has it at the moment, I should have it back this evening to check it over.

Well I've just figured it out and thought I should post a conclusion on here. I found the timing belt had jumped a tooth or two, I'm not sure if the tensioner had backed off slightly or if it was just from belt stretch but the little tensioner gauge was quite low. On the bright side it runs fine and doesn't look like I have any valve damage.

Dodged a huge bullet.. Thanks for the follow up.

J-rod144 said:

Well I've just figured it out and thought I should post a conclusion on here. I found the timing belt had jumped a tooth or two, I'm not sure if the tensioner had backed off slightly or if it was just from belt stretch but the little tensioner gauge was quite low. On the bright side it runs fine and doesn't look like I have any valve damage.

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Wow. If this was my vehicle, I would investigate until I found out why the belt could possibly have jumped a tooth or two, as that would mean something is seriously wrong somewhere. Glad to hear you didn't trash the engine!

Did you order a Kit to replace it. I would!

Wrong timing belt tensioner torque?
Tensioner tab not inserted in the block/head?
Tensioned backwards (like a gasser)?

I find it hard to screw up timing belt installs on this car. Buy good parts and you're good to go.

Sometimes you can also get the timing to retard too much if after a timing belt replacement you don't tighten the cam adjustment bolts enough. That happened to me once, and when trying to set the timing right, didn't know that the torsion value (look this up) only goes to +-5 degrees and everything else reads zero. That can be somewhat misleading if you think you're spot on but are really at 8 degrees or somesuch value. You can adjust that quickly without removing the timing belt. If you have a Vagcom, this is really easy to do, just make sure you're close to 1.5 or 2 degrees when done to account for timing belt stretching.

Cheers!