[urq] Intermittent no start, now a weird intermittent start.

[Patrick Carlier]

I had a similar problem
Lazy starting , as if the battery was drained . Sometimes , but not alway's 
.
Sometimes a deadfull click ....

In a nutshell .

1) The cable from the battery was wired to the alternator .
Then came back to the starter with a thinner gauge . .
Should be the other way around .
Improved starting , but didn't cure .

2) Underneath the carpets under the glove box there's a wire splice  .
A good squeeze with a vice grips improved things but didn't cure it .

3) New brass connector on the battery , crimped and soldered to the cable .
Once again improved a bit but didn't fix it .

4) Finally I found that the connector (  the eye or whatever it's called in 
english )
that connects the cable to the starter was a bit "loose" .
Cutting it of and crimping and soldering an new one cured the problem once
and for all .

It's a miracle that  car would start in the first place :)


In the future I intend to run a large gauge cable  directly from the battery 
to the starter and get rid of the wire splice .
To feed the fuesbox , two extra 6mm² wires will be used , also directly from 
the battery to the fusebox .
That way the fusebox will not "see" the high starter current and the poor 
contacts in the wire splice will also be eliminated .

Pat




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Keith" <spotatashleys at hotmail.com>
To: <urq at audifans.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2013 6:19 PM
Subject: [urq] Intermittent no start, now a weird intermittent start.


> Sometime ago I put up a series of posts about an intermittent no start 
> where it sometimes would start fine and sometimes I’d turn the key and 
> nothing would happen, not even a click. However if I rocked the car a bit 
> whilst in gear, it would start. Not only was this a pain when it happened 
> it was a bit embarrassing too. I put up with it for far too 
> long.....because it was intermittent.
> Anyway after getting it all back together and up and running following the 
> head gasket job I resolved to purchase and fit a new starter motor which I 
> did today. (had a day off work quattro day in the sunshine!).
> Now the new starter turns every time and whirrs nicely like a starter on a 
> modern new car but..........after initially starting reasonably well the 
> next time it turns slowly like the battery is run down and doesn’t fire. 
> So I charge the battery up which surprisingly didn’t take long so it 
> couldn’t have been too low. This time it fired up. I went for a short 
> drive, came back, switched off. 5 Minutes later tried to start it and it 
> turns over slowly like low battery but won’t start. Battery showing 12.33v 
> and when I put it on the charger it shows fully charged. I am not great at 
> diagnosing electrical faults. Fine at repairing them but not good at 
> identifying them.
>
> Anyone have any ideas what’s going on. Sorry to be monopolising the list 
> at the moment but having a beautiful car and wonderful weather.....yes 
> that’s right wonderful weather in England...I’m really disappointed not to 
> be able to be out enjoying it on the open road. So if you have any ideas, 
> as usual, I will be most grateful. Many thanks.
>
> All the best
>
> Keith
>
> ‘87 WR
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