G'day guys
I've had a ever increasing problem with my beetle not being able to start after leaving it for a while, ie: first turn of the key every morning it
starts first time, but if I stop it, quickly come back to the car & try to restart it it won't start & takes quite a few goes.
At first i thought it was a Subaru problem, it's common after many years that the Crank angle sensor & water temp sensor fail & they won't
start when hot.
I have replaced both these items & also all the relays for the fuel pumps & the Microtech computer as these are now over 6 years old.
So, as a last resort I have just driven to the place where I bought my battery from, it's a dry cell unit which was purchased just over a year ago,
the first one lasted 5 years so I thought maybe I had a dead cell in the new one. The battery checks out fine & of course when I went to start it
it wouldn't.
I tried a few times but this time for the 4th atempt I took the key out of the ingnition, re inserted it & bang she fired first time. I did that
yesterday as well, tried starting it at least 10 times before taking the ignition key out & trying again it started first go.
Just now back home in the garage, I tried starting it again, it started first time & took a few goes to make it not want to start. one thing I
have noticed is that if I turn just the ignition on, my Microtech dash lights up, Autometor oil pressure & oil temp guages move & my Autometer
oil pressure warning light comes on, when it won't start, when the ignition key is turned further, the Microtech dash, Autometer guages & oil
warning light all go out. As though there is no power to any of them.
Do u think that the 40 year old vw ingnition barrel is finally worn out?? I'm out of ideas
regards
Jak
just bypass the start by temporary wiring a push button into the switch wires or try a new barrel and plastic switch.
Thats exactly what it is
The original would have been worn out 30 years ago and has just been on borrowed time since
It's really common and worst part is the quality of replacements is nothing compared to the original german ones so they dont last half as long
But adding a hard start relay to take the load off the ignition switch can fix that.