96 passat - no spark

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Phil L - 07 Feb 2009 16:53 GMT

My passat conked out yesterday, and I had to tow it home as I flattened the
battery trying to restart it (I'd already drove it a few miles, so the
engine was warm).

After recharging the battery, I tried a sparkplug on the bodywork when
turning the key and there doesn't appear to be a spark from any of them.
The dissy cap seems OK inside, as does the rotor arm, but the lead that
leads to the centre of the dissy cap, the one that brings the spark into it,
I lifted that off and tried that against the bodywork and I can't see a
spark from that neither.

This lead (which on old cars came from the coil) comes from a small
electronic component, is it possible that this thing is knackered? - or is
it more likely that the immobiliser is to blame? - when I first bought the
car 8 years ago, the immobiliser went and VW repaired/reprogrammed it and
it's been fine ever since, but I'm not sure if that time, the immobiliser
stopped the flow of petrol or whether it stopped the spark, does anyone
know?

TIA

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Phil L
RSRL Tipster Of The Year 2008

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Phil L - 07 Feb 2009 17:19 GMT

as an addendum to this, after attempting to start the engine and the key is
allowed to go back into it's position, there is a strange electronic
'clicking' noise within the carburetta, and upon closer inspection (by
removing the air intake pipe), the steel 'flap' which I assume controls the
air intake is rocking back and forth - even after the key is removed from
the ignition, then it gives a longish beeeeep, for about 4 or 5 seconds.

The coilpack is getting warm during ignition attempts

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SFC - 08 Feb 2009 10:55 GMT

Could be the hall sensor in the dis. You can check this by measuring the
voltage bounce between the signal line marked with an "O" and gnd "-" on the
dis connector. The voltage should bounce between zero and 5V (or more) while
cranking.

SFC

> as an addendum to this, after attempting to start the engine and the key
> is allowed to go back into it's position, there is a strange electronic
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> The coilpack is getting warm during ignition attempts

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Chris Bartram - 08 Feb 2009 10:29 GMT

> My passat conked out yesterday, and I had to tow it home as I flattened the
> battery trying to restart it (I'd already drove it a few miles, so the
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> TIA

If the immobiliser is active, there should be a key symbol lit on the dash.

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Phil L - 08 Feb 2009 20:12 GMT

> My passat conked out yesterday, and I had to tow it home as I
> flattened the battery trying to restart it (I'd already drove it a
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> TIA

Thanks to all who replied, I went to the scrapyard and got a coilpack for a
fiver from an R plated Golf, put this in and it started with the first turn
of the key.

what's happening now though, is that the automatic choke doesn't seem to be
working - not much of a problem as it only needs it for the first hundred
yards or so and I'll have a bash at this when I get more time.

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Phil L
RSRL Tipster Of The Year 2008

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