Members:

I have a 2004 tdi jetta with 41k miles. Over the past 4 months it has been having difficulty starting and in some instances not starting. The ignotion turns over but the car will not start until the third or fourth try. The dealership has had it in 5 times and replaced a leaking fuel pump (this past wednesday) and another valve in the fuel system. I run the car 600 miles per week. i use diesel kleen in it regularly. Any ideas???

Thanks

Pete

 

How cold is your climate? I live in SW PA and my friend's 98 Beetle TDI has trouble starting in the winter, when it is really cold (under 32). He just lets it crank until it kicks over. It normally takes about 20-30 seconds, but the car starts. Your car only has 41k miles though and his has 156k. If it has 41k and is an 04, you should still have a warranty, right? Just let VW dump a ton of money into the car until it runs the way you like it.

 

We have a 2003 TDI 1.9 Jetta Stationwagen. The car would sporatically not start at about 40k miles. The engine noise was getting louder before it quit starting. It was under warranty and VW cleaned out the EGR valve and intake manifold. Ran great for about a year and another 15,000 miles. Guess what, same problem, EGR valve sticking and manifold plugged again. Since we were past 50,000 miles, it is no longer under the manufacturers warranty and our 100,000 extended warranty will not cover it. About a $600 repair every year/15,000 miles seems a little expensive. Our local VW shop cleaned the EGR valve as a courtesy but not the manifold. I don't know if this is your problem but it may be worth checking. If the EGR valve is stuck open, you can manually unstick it but it is a bit of a pain on a low mileage car. I would be interested in any solutions others have found to this problem.

 

Gosh, I have a 2004 Jetta Wagon TDI also. I have the check Engine light coming on now with 45,400 miles on it. I appreciate the knowledge of what happened to yours. I will have my mechanic go there first. But I assume I under warrenty and will take i back to my VW shop! Hopefully the problem will go away. I just got 47.5 mpg on a trip down to Dayton this weekend though!

 

highly possible its your glow plugs(heater plugs) have burnt out, if it started getting worse as time goes on could be. there are 4 glow plugs and they can burn out one by one, on the mk3 diesels its a tight job to change them but an hour and a half should do it.

 

the diesels are known to have the manifold clogging and requiring cleaning issue. if i was you, i would learn how to do it yourself, and do it every so often to keep from having problems. just buy a VW service manual, and remove the parts and clean them.