Cold Starts

[DJ]

Hope I'm posting this in the right place and apologies if this topic already exists. I did search for 'Cold Starts' but nothing hit home.

Does anyone else have a problem with their car needing the engine turned over a good few times before catching? I drive quite a variety of cars (rentals, company cars, old cars etc) and the GTI is by far and away the worst for starting. Even when you think the engine has caught and ease back on the key the engine will die.

Usually once the engine is warm everything is OK and it will restart without a problem but now we are getting into depths of winter (not today though) I am noticing this more and more.

[markymark]

The only thing I have noticed with mine is that it does struggle on initial start up, sometimes sounds like its going to die, but as you say once its going no problems.

[Greeners]

Mine's not great on start up either but always fires first time.

The wife's Jetta 2.0 TDI was the same until it was serviced, then it seemed to start much better    Has your's had it's first service?

[markymark]

Mine's not great on start up either but always fires first time.

The wife's Jetta 2.0 TDI was the same until it was serviced, then it seemed to start much better    Has your's had it's first service?

Nope, not yet, Im assuming the display will tell me when its due ?

[Greeners]

Mine's not great on start up either but always fires first time.

The wife's Jetta 2.0 TDI was the same until it was serviced, then it seemed to start much better    Has your's had it's first service?

Nope, not yet, Im assuming the display will tell me when its due ?

It will be two years old on the 3rd of Jan so I'd get it done either way If I were you mate 

[markymark]

Mine's not great on start up either but always fires first time.

The wife's Jetta 2.0 TDI was the same until it was serviced, then it seemed to start much better    Has your's had it's first service?

Nope, not yet, Im assuming the display will tell me when its due ?

It will be two years old on the 3rd of Jan so I'd get it done either way If I were you mate 

Yeah, ive no doubt it will shout up soon, but I had planned on getting it done in the next month or so!

[Top Cat]

Hope I'm posting this in the right place and apologies if this topic already exists. I did search for 'Cold Starts' but nothing hit home.

Does anyone else have a problem with their car needing the engine turned over a good few times before catching? I drive quite a variety of cars (rentals, company cars, old cars etc) and the GTI is by far and away the worst for starting. Even when you think the engine has caught and ease back on the key the engine will die.

Usually once the engine is warm everything is OK and it will restart without a problem but now we are getting into depths of winter (not today though) I am noticing this more and more.

Hi DJ, mine is almost new and has been like this form the first day, i dont drive mine to often so it can go 5 or 6 days without being turned over but i suffer from the very same thing.
Now i have asked this on another forum and it is very common and the best bit of advice i got and was from our resident expert, a certain mr TT.  And he told me to just keep the key turned until you know its running, instead of releasing when it should have fired or when you think it has fired.
Now i pulled a face and thought huh. But i do it all the time now and it works perfect obviously you dont keep the key turned once its running but that split second longer makes all the difference and since this advice i have not once had to turn the key more than once to start. simple but effective.

[T88OMM]

Yeah I get this aswell, must be common amongst GTI/ED30's. I always wondered if it was just my car but after reading this I feel a lot better 

[DJ]

Thanks for the replies all, glad to hear I'm not the only one to notice this.

All my previous cars have started almost immediately on start-up so I notice it more, especially if I use mine after driving something else for a while. I go away a fair bit for work so sometimes the car will sit for a few weeks without running. It always starts but it does seem strange for a modern vehicle to take so long!

I have no problem/ worries turning the engine over until it catches but a couple of people have remarked "is there something wrong with your car?" which is a tad embarrassing for what is essentially a new car. 7 months old and under 3k miles.

Last time I was passed a VW dealer I mentioned it to the technician and of course because the engine was warm it started no problem.

[SteveP]

Mine also does this and if anything has got slightly worse since the first service.

But like the others have said it will always start but you just have to hold the key for a bit longer than on some other cars.

Previous 05 Plate GTI didn't do though

[08micsta]

Hello. Funny you mention this. Our  gti starts perfectly each time. Never a problem. Never just cuts? just an idea. I know that last year vw had an issue with batteries and some cars were recalled for new batteries as the batteries were going flat and at that stage our gti did wat you described. New battery and no problems. So you might want to get that checked out as i was told it was a uk issue too. Mike

[DJ]

08micsta, was this an official recall? As I said I have spoken to one dealer about this (although not the one I purchased from) and he was unable to offer an explanation.

My car is an 08 build registered in March so I would have thought anything that happened last year would be sorted by now although this is VW we are speaking about...

My friend has a year old TT and doesn't have this problem, does anyone know if any other models with the same engine share these characteristics or just the GTI?

[08micsta]

Well looking at those who have replied this seems to be common amongst the edition 30 besides TC's and ours which was solved.

We were told its an official recall of "certain" models that were given the wrong batteries.

So maybe just maybe the cause of this is because the Edition 30 has uprated internals and a bigger turbo. Perhaps the normal GTi Battery battles a bit with these upgrades and then of course as the car gets older it could become worse as the battery is deteriating?

Perhaps a little overboard but it is a possibility. Ours was recalled for the new battery and has worked perfect since.

Mike

[stealthwolf]

Hello. Funny you mention this. Our  gti starts perfectly each time. Never a problem.

Ditto. Never had an issue with starting.

[08micsta]

Stealthwolf. Your are Edition 30 correct?