VW golf V6 dead as a dodo - anyone help?

Hintza

(Land_of)_Maz wrote: »

naaah! in his defence, he's pretty good, can strip down old VW's and rebuild, corrados, mk1,2,3 golfs but once you get into computerised ones he knows SFA!

Aye when I gave up my old 1990 Merc that was the end of me doing all the jobs myself, such a sad day.

Whilst on the subject have you just run the battery down? Not enough charge going in whilst idling?

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Cleaning the battery terminals probably won't make a difference. Get the battery tested to begin with.

Unless you have a driveway or are on private land it is actually illegal to leave a car with the engine running, but as others have said it isn't good practice as engines are subject to a lot of wear when cold, and engines take longer to warm up when idling as opposed to being driven. Additionally if it gets stolen while idling your insurance company will not pay out. Just fire it up, give it 5 seconds, and drive off. Try not to exceed 3000rpm or thereabouts until the engine is warm.

ariba10

Probably battery failure The cold weather is the time most batteries pack up.

(Land_of)_Maz

I'm sure you are all absolutely right... reckon a new battery is in order.

Thanks for your help...

and pew pew, i do always have that niggly feeling about some b*gger nicking it! Although we live rural, it's on the street not private road... i'll definitely not do it from now on.....

PT66

Although no expert, during the cold spell I will let my car tick over with the heater on to defrost the windows and this never causes any problems and better than scraping the windows (I usually sit in the car with a cuppa so not worry about it being nicked). Cannot see that a UK spec car would have an anti tick over device fitted so I would look at the battery and if that is ok a diagnostics check.

(Land_of)_Maz

PT66 wrote: »

Although no expert, during the cold spell I will let my car tick over with the heater on to defrost the windows and this never causes any problems and better than scraping the windows (I usually sit in the car with a cuppa so not worry about it being nicked). Cannot see that a UK spec car would have an anti tick over device fitted so I would look at the battery and if that is ok a diagnostics check.

very impressive multitasking! lol!

Hintza

(Land_of)_Maz wrote: »

I'm sure you are all absolutely right... reckon a new battery is in order.

Thanks for your help...

and pew pew, i do always have that niggly feeling about some b*gger nicking it! Although we live rural, it's on the street not private road... i'll definitely not do it from now on.....

Don't change anything until you have got it started and taken for a run (jump start?) or at least charged the battery. Then you can decide whether it was your idling draining the battery or the battery or perhaps the alternator.

Don't worry your BF will still be able to do this .

TiTheRev

Could be an immobiliser fault? They dont have a cut out mode when idling just for the record, and a flat battery wouldn't turn the car off whilst idling, just wouldn't start when you next tried it?!

steveo3002

while i agree that warming a car up isnt the best thing to do , i dont think its whats caused any problems to you

plus sometimes you need to idle it a min or to get the screen clear...better than limping off up the road peering through a tiny clear spot on the screen

(Land_of)_Maz

TiTheRev wrote: »

Could be an immobiliser fault? They dont have a cut out mode when idling just for the record, and a flat battery wouldn't turn the car off whilst idling, just wouldn't start when you next tried it?!

Interesting as that's what BF thought at first. As i said, the same thing happened on monday and after locking and reopening it was okay, so maybe immobiliser or so BF thought...

strange that the dashboard lights went off while it was idling though... then i turned it off and on thinking they would come on again, but then it was totally dead... not even a splutter or a flicker.... seems less immobiliser-related this time...

thanks for your input all...!