'97 Golf VR6 will not start.

[butleraw 0]

Hi all,

I currently own a 1997 Golf VR6. The car (before I owned it) had the quite common problem of being unable to turn the engine over with the key. To solve this problem in a cheap way, the previous owner fitted a door bell directly to the starter motor. This solved the problem, but looked awful not only under the bonnet, but also in the dash. When I purchased the car, I had a problem with the alarm and got an auto electrician in to remove it. While he was round he also rewired the door bell to somewhere on the fuse box. I then replaced the door bell switch with a proper car starting switch. It's now quite a nice feature to the car. This has worked problem free for the last year. Last night, I switched the ignition on as usual and pushed the button as usual... Nothing. The engine didn't turn over at all. The battery is fine, as the clock didn't go to 00:00 when turning over. My first thought was that the switch must be faulty. I disconnected one of the wires going to the switch and touched it on the other wire. Still nothing. Luckily I had a car full of friends, so was able to bump start it. Tonight I'm going to get the fuse box out and see if a wire has dropped off. I was just wondering if anyone out there has other ideas what the problem could be. Could it be a relay? If so do you which relay is used for ignition?

Hope you can help!

Thanks

Anthony.

[shail 0]

When my car refused to start it was the braided earth wire on the starter motor which was corroded. I bodged the wire back on with some heavy duty clips which was fine for a year or so, but in the end had to replace the starter.

[xyber 1]

jammed starter motor? give it a tap with a hammer

[butleraw 0]

All Sorted now! I took apart the entire dash and followed the starter switch cables to under the dash. They were all connected fine. I then checked all fuses and looked for burnt out relays. Still nothing. I ended up calling Green Flag. They came round and fixed it in under a minute!! The red wire going to the starter motor had just slightly come off it's connection. I can't believe I missed that!!