i have no idea whats wrong with this thing. 99 passat gls 1.8t manual 108k miles. worked fine yesterday but when i went to start it tonight it refused. oil is a little low but not serious, all belts are good(inclding the timing belt) starter runs and everything turns under the hood, all lights come on, power locks and windows work, didnt see any blown fuses. when i turn the key and hold it batt and engine light stay on but batt light starts to blink after 2-3 seconds and tachometer starts showing 2-300 rpm. i hear gurgling from the top of the engine when the key is turned to the on position so i assume fuel pump is delivering fuel. basically as far as i can tell NOTHING is wrong but i have no ignition and i wasnt getting any negative feedback when it was running yesterday. what the heck is wrong with this thing? please help me guys im at a loss

 

Welcome to the forum.

It this a petrol\gas or diesel motor?

Doesn't it run at all or does it run for a second or two then stop which means you have an immobilizer fault?

Now some VW's do have problems with the 109 ecu power relay under the bonnet. You can still crank the engine but the ecu isn't powered.

Check in the fuse\relay box under the bonnet if you have one numbered 109. If you do then its worth carrying a spare in the car as they can go at anytime and you don't want to be stuck miles from no where do you?

 

its a gas/petrol engine. and it doesnt start at all. starter motor runs and turns the timing belt but it doesnt start running on its own. did some more diagnostics today at lunch though, tested for spark and got it (plus confirmation that its getting gas cause i had the plug too close to the cylinder). but when i took the boot off to get to the spark plug itself there was oil in there. called three different shops (one that specializes in vw's) and all three told me they couldnt tell me anything without haveing the car, but sorry i didnt sign up to be a mechanic in the army to pay you 90 bucks an hour to fix my car. i think tomorrow im going to try strting it without the air filter, spraying carb cleaner/ether in the air intake and replacing the spark plugs, plus see about that oil leak and if you guys have any other suggestions please throw them my way. by the way where is the relay that you were talking about? ive ony had the car three months and no owners manual so i havent found the relay box yet

 

ok tried the air filter already and it didnt do diddly. i have noticed small cracks in the box-thingy on top of the spark plug boot in three of the four cylinders. could this be part of my problem?

 

Is this box thingy brown in colour? It sounds like the distributor cap. Yes you don't want any cracks in that as the HT spark will jump to earth rather that jumping down the spark plug lead. Even a cracked cap it should still attempt to fire on at least 1 or 2 cylinders.

As a quick repair you could carefully drill a 8mm hole in the middle of the crack and scrap any carbon out of the crack if you can't get to a shop to buy another one.