Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum and a new VW driver, so forgive me if I'm a bit green on some of the terminology and all that! I've only owned my VW for about 2 months so am still getting to know it. I've had a problem recently that I thought some of you may have an idea on.

The car: 2000 reg 1.6 petrol Golf SE. It's been fairly well used but also well looked after - got about 79000 miles on it right now, with a cambelt change at 40. MOT'd 3 months ago.

The problem: Yesterday I was driving into a multistory car park and at the top of the ramp the engine cut out (I think I had just changed into 1st gear). I thought it was a stall but it wouldn't start at all - the electrics worked and the engine coughed but wouldn't actually start. I had to get out and push it into a vacant space.

After calling the AA man, the engine embarrassingly started working straight away with no problems (after about 35 minutes wait). However, as I was leaving the car park to drive down to meet his van, it happened again. I reversed out of the space, changed to first, and the engine stopped. This time however, it restarted on the fourth or fifth time after I gave it 30 seconds to rest (it wasn't just a stall).

The AA man ran some tests which showed a fault with the emissions sensor I was already aware of and something on the cam bus (?? sorry can't remember exactly what it was!) but nothing wrong with the engine. Of course now it started without fault. I left without knowing what had caused it, or how to fix it, which of course leaves me rather concerned that I might break down in a much more inconvenient place.

I had over 1/2 tank of fuel so it was unlikely to be a problem there. It has never done this in the past according to its previous owner of 3 years (a friend of mine). I'll get it in for servicing when I can, but I have a big drive coming up that I have to do first.

Any ideas what's going wrong, how I can avoid it happening again and any tips/ideas to try if it does?

Thanks a lot for any help!