VW Golf 1.9 Diesel - VW 1.9 Diesel starting quirk

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Sat 9 Feb 2013 10:04
VW Golf 1.9 Diesel - VW 1.9 Diesel starting quirk - James Collard

Our 1.9 diesel (now 120k miles) still runs fabulously and starts first time in any weather condition, even down to -15C. But, if I stop during a journey to pop to a shop or post a letter, it is almost impossible to get it to start again. It cranks over for a good 4-5 seconds before reluctantly catching. It's been doing this for at least the last 40K miles, and our very good VW garage is stumped by the problem. Has anyone encountered a similar problem, or can recommend a possible reason and solution?

Jim COLLARD

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Sat 9 Feb 2013 12:28
VW Golf 1.9 Diesel - VW 1.9 Diesel starting quirk - Peter.N.

Presumably this car is not common rail and has an injector pump, if so the pump could be worn and not coping well with the lower viscosity hot diesel, not by any means a common problem on yours but I am putting it forward as a possibility.

The pumps on the BMW engine in the Vauxhall Omega suffered this problem and there is an electrical bodge to overcome it.

This is quite a common problem with common rail HP pumps but not usuall with injector pumps.

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Sat 9 Feb 2013 13:13
VW Golf 1.9 Diesel - VW 1.9 Diesel starting quirk - Coady1uk

I have a 1.9 Tdi PD Passat and very recently suffered an identical problem, mpg dropped by about 4mpg as well. Turned out to be the crankshaft position sensor, not an expensive fix at around £25 for the part. Once changed everything returned to normal. I checked the old sensor with a meter and it checked out ok, so i assume it was breaking down electrically when hot.

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Sat 9 Feb 2013 20:35
VW Golf 1.9 Diesel - VW 1.9 Diesel starting quirk - Big John

I had this a few years ago with a Passat with an "out of tolerance" temperature sensor. When starting from warm(ish) it wouldn't use glow plugs at all and was really hard to start (needed a lot of cranking over) until thoroughly cooled down.. Replaced the sensor and all was well.

Edited by Big John on 09/02/2013 at 20:37

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