My car won't start. The engine turns, it's on for a bit but quickly dies out. Each time I try turning it on the time it stays on gets shorter. I found this out yesterday and waited for OH to get home. After he got home (about three hours later) I tried turning it on to show him, and lo and behold it stayed on. I stupidly drove it around for a bit hoping it was a dead battery and I could charge it and drove it home. This morning it wouldn't start again. We are hoping it is the alternator. Does that sound like what it is? Anybody else have a better guess? I'm hoping I'll be able to get it started again like last night and drive it to a mechanic. This is quite aggravating given it's less than two years old and has 12,000 miles on it. D:
It sounds like the alternator, but it could also be something like a clogged up fuel injection system or something like that. It doesn't sound like the battery. I'm not too much of a car guru- that's about all I've got.
If you think it is the battery, which in turn could mean the alternator, pull that battery and take it to VIP, they can test them. If you or the OH is savvy enough, pull the alternator and bring that along, they can test those too. DO CALL AHEAD and be sure that your nearest location can test them, I've heard there are some that don't have the equipment. If it isn't those things, your car may not be idling properly, which could be a plethora of different issues. Check that and get back to us, also, make/model and year could help. EDIT: Just noticed Marso's question and you answer.
Good thought- I didn't think of that. When the car was running normally and you were stopped, did it idle at a very low RPM? Could need a timing adjustment if it's an automatic.
Here is a recall on the 07 Rabbit. Not related to your problem, but could be one in the future- could already have been fixed too, but worth looking.
Okay so this is the part where I sound like a moron. Because of the type of engine I have it makes a very distinct sound. Normally when I turn my car on it goes very, very high pitched, and for a long time, and then when I take my foot off the break it'll stop and kind of jolt a bit forward. The first couple of times this happened I called the dealership, and they told me that's just what the Rabbit does. Well it's not doing that right now. It stays very low and while it's a nice change, I know it means something is wrong with my car. It sounds perfectly normal when I'm driving, accelerating, etc. but when I'm starting it doesn't sound right and when I was idling it sounded very quiet and low as well. So that makes a bit of sense to me, but it's not like I know WTF I'm talking about.
Which is sadly why the dealership probably said that was normal. I wish I could offer more advice, but the more reviews I read, the less hopeful I am about the car. A high pitched whine on start-up sounds like a bad battery, but it could also be a problem with the starter. I'd have to hear it to make a better guess. The best advice I can give- don't buy a VW again, from what I'm reading they are: Impossible to work on. Everything (including oil changes) have to be done at a dealership ($90) Unreliable from a mechanical standpoint, safety ratings are tits, but the '07 Rabbit sounds to break down right quick. Not to be snarky, but in the future, you may want to look at car reviews before committing to a purchase.
Could be a million things, from your description. You bought a very complex, tempermental car designed to exclude the average backyard wrench monkey. Leased (never fucking do that! ) a Passat for my wife 5-6 years ago. Brand new goddamned car, had it in the shop several times in the space of about 4 months for what eventually turned out to be a faulty ignition coil listed on a factory recall. My love for modern V-dubs is nonexistent.
Okay one more and I'm out- sounds like auto versus manual is the big problem here. The automatic transmissions tend to crap out, and quick. I've read 1 review with similar start-up problems, but nothing came of that. There are a few reviews on the front bearings and struts giving out so if you hear some weird noises or feel the wheel fighting in turns look there first. I've read 10 reviews in probably 100 that said in big black letters DO NOT BUY, but everyone else seems to love it. This could be that the problems may be isolated to a specific run of the vehicle model and lot numbers (if available) could confirm this suspicion, if they exist. I've also read that brake wear is excessive, some claim the fronts go fast, others say the rear- either way, that isn't great. I'd say to take it into the dealership (if you're under warranty) and have them look at it, with warranty they shouldn't charge you much (if anything) to have a look. Keep in mind these other problems and check the recall lists often, there maybe a recall in the works for some of these other problems. Sorry if this is all a bit negative and disappointing, but I hope it all works out.
If I had to be, it's your ignition control module (some people call it the ignition switch module). It controls your coil packs, and it can damage/destroy them if you don't have it diagnosed. This is a system that replaces distributors on newer vehicles. I've been selling a lot of these 2.5's specifically with the BPR engine code. Can you check on your driver's door to see what enine code you have? Because to be honest, I've tried to tell some customers I doubt they need engines, and that their mechanics are too lazy to change that module/swap coil packs. I know I've wrestled with it a lot on my A4 which has the previous generation engine.
Well the good news is VW will tow my car for free for four years, 50,000 miles. So my car will be off to the dealership soon.
Damnit, I thought I made a post in this thread. Good for you that it's still under warranty. In the future, I recommend having one of these. It's an easy to use tool that will check both the battery and the alternator/generator while they're on the vehicle/implement. If, for whatever reason, you don't want to buy one yourself, almost any parts store should have one or something very similar and should be able to check those two components for free in just a few minutes.
Hey turns out my car is fine. The tow guy tried my key and immediately said, "It's a key problem." Then he had me get my spare and tried it and it worked. So I guess my key got effed up some how and my car is built to not run if it thinks the key being used is not the key that goes with the car. Good to know. I am happy.
Wish my car was so easy to fix. One of the power steering lines is pissing fluid all over the engine. I need to drive round all the local garages and see if any of them can fit me in today.
Intriguing. My car has one of these anti-theft key systems. Good to know this may be a symptom of it misbehaving. Depressing to know a bad key could cause these symptoms though. I don't think in a million years anyone would've guessed this problem here. For the record, my question was going to be if there was gas in the car. I'd gotten so used to refilling the General Zod when the low fuel light came on that when it burned out I...managed to run the car out of gas. Anyway, it behaved in a very similar way.
No, because the part is extremely specific. Not only to the car, but even the factory it was made in and the month of the year. It needs an expert to look at it. It took the parts expert at the Peugeot dealership about 50 minutes to decide exactly which one I need... Unfortunately its gonna cost £250
My gas gauge doesn't really work. It gets down to just above 1/4 tank, and then immediately drops all the way down and triggers the warning light. I'm just in the habit of keeping a mental account of how much fuel I put in and how much driving I do, knowing my approximate mileage for the type of driving I do from one day to the next. A real man is one with his vehicle anyway. And yes, I did run the fucking thing out of gas several times before I started keeping track.
As a habit, a friend of mine would reset his trip odometer everytime he filled up his tank so he could tell when he was going to run out of gas, down to the mile. Don't know when, but he figured out exactly how many miles he could go before it would be bone dry.
Heh. I remember National Geographic did a thing on the early days of flying--specifically WWI fighter planes--the gas gauges were notoriously bad so a lot of pilots would nail a watch to the dashboard and note how much flying time they had. My bike doesn't have a gas gauge, but it has a trip odometer, so I know I need gas between 175 and 200 miles. If I bump the reset while washing the bike, I have to settle for opening the gas cap and sloshing the bike around to see how much gas there is. Of course if all else fails there's the reserve switch, which is supposed to be good for 10-20 miles. Only had to use that maybe twice. Coming back to the General Zod, it had been idling really low RPMs at stoplights for more'n a day (my commute was only around 7 miles each way). Finally on the way home it started losing power before finally dying on me--happily as I coasted off the freeway at my exit. A quick look under the hood revealed no obvious problems, so I let it cool off a bit and tentatively restarted it. I made it almost 1/4 mile, with a nice downhill allowing me to totally drain the tank. Then on the uphill it died and coasted to a stop. Efforts to restart it were fruitless. (Remember, this was a junker with mechanical problems, so I thought maybe I'd just had it crap out on me.) As I was stewing on the matter, I remembered the beast had been on "E" for quite some time. I went and got some gas (which, in Hawaii, is a whole OTHER story ) and whaddyaknow?
