There are several threads regarding glowplugs and hard starting. Yes, if your glow time is too short and it is cold, it will be very hard to start. Last summer I noticed the temperature guage intermittanly falling back to zilch when the car was obviously warm and running. No one makes coolant that good! So off to a dealer for a new sender unit, and after a small loss of coolant, and two trips to the dealer for a part that actually fitted my car, the new sensor was in, guage working.
Then fall arrived, and the car became steadily more difficult to start as the temperature dropped. It did not take a Sherlock Holmes to figure what to suspect. "Watson" could have solved that one. A peek at the indicated coolant temp with a VAG-COM when the car was left overnight at 5 deg C showed that the computer was told it was a lovely tropical 30 DEG C!!!! So I had the wrong part in for 2 months.
According to one parts counter, there are two to three possible models of coolant temperature sensor for the ALH engine. One has a very different connector from mine (built Mar 99) and is cheap - $7Cdn. The first "parts" counter indicated I needed the "$18" one - and was the wrong type. A third trip to a different dealer yielded the correct part (and new rubber O-ring) at $45. Tip: Make a note of the color of the connector. If you remove the unit, coolant will start to drain out (Duh!).
Note that this sensor is actually two in one unit - one half provides for the instrument guage and the other for the ECM.
Then fall arrived, and the car became steadily more difficult to start as the temperature dropped. It did not take a Sherlock Holmes to figure what to suspect. "Watson" could have solved that one. A peek at the indicated coolant temp with a VAG-COM when the car was left overnight at 5 deg C showed that the computer was told it was a lovely tropical 30 DEG C!!!! So I had the wrong part in for 2 months.
According to one parts counter, there are two to three possible models of coolant temperature sensor for the ALH engine. One has a very different connector from mine (built Mar 99) and is cheap - $7Cdn. The first "parts" counter indicated I needed the "$18" one - and was the wrong type. A third trip to a different dealer yielded the correct part (and new rubber O-ring) at $45. Tip: Make a note of the color of the connector. If you remove the unit, coolant will start to drain out (Duh!).
Note that this sensor is actually two in one unit - one half provides for the instrument guage and the other for the ECM.
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