Volkswagen Golf III (1992 - 1997) - 95 2.0 GTi electrical fault

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
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Tue 3 Nov 2009 22:03
95 2.0 GTi electrical fault - jakey
hi there, i'm new to the site,
i have a 1995 mk3 golf gti 2.0 8v engine code agg
i recently parked up the car over night and returned the next morning to find it would not start although it was cranking, got plenty fuel getting to engine but found no spark, changed the obvious coil but to no joy so changed crank sensor, dizzy cap and rotor arm, still no joy, all relays are correct and present.
after some head scratching and testing i found that the 3 pin connector that goes to the distributor was at fault as all 3 wires had a 12v feed, the brown/blue wire is earthed when ignition is off but becomes 12v when ignition on, this appears to incorrect, i put earth using power probe when cranking and it started, but i'm stumped as to where the feed comes from so i can find the fault, is it an internal fault with engine ecu? only faults present using ethos scanner is throttle position sensor fault, if this if at fault would it cause this short? any help on this matter would be greatley appreciated, if i put a permanent earth to this wire it runs sweet as a nut but i know this isn't correct and has to be rectified, regards jakey

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 04/11/2009 at 00:24

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Tue 3 Nov 2009 22:26
95 2000 electrical fault - elekie&a/c doctor
A faulty distributor will not cause the engine to not start.However,by earthing the brown /blue wire you have effectively given the engine control system an earth which has been lost.If I recall there is a group of earth connections on the front of the engine block or on the end of the cylinder head.May be a good idea to give these a clean.Could also be an internal earth cicuit fault within the Ecu.Has the gearbox been out recently?if so check the main battery to engine earth strap.hth
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Wed 4 Nov 2009 06:41
95 2000 electrical fault - jakey
hi there thanks for you speedy reply, the car hs had no mechanical work carried out since its last mot in august, it just occurred all of a sudden, i have given the brown/blue wire a bolted earth to the earth on front left hand side of engine block, does it sound as though the ecu has become at fault and no longer has an internal earth to this wire? when i run the car with this temporary fix there is no warning lights etc on dash, so would it be ok to leave it, when i put earth to the brown blue then disconnect it i can hear the throttle butterfly moving slightly, is this normal, regards
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