it has had a defective lamba sensor for 6 months that according to my local garage who deal a lot in vw's has been sending erratic signals and periodically saying I have an engine management fault.
he checked it out a while back around 6 months ago and due to the car not showing any driving problems he decided it was a false signal and the only way to stop it was to change the faulty lamba but in his opinion I was only going to pay for the light to go out.
he is a trustworthy guy and local who is a vw specialist garage although a small garage he has never done me any wrong in 5 years using him so I decided to just leave it.
the car went in today and he cannot find a fault as it is now starting ok grrrrr
he told me it could be related to the lamba but he cant be sure, now my wife in her infinite wisdom decided not to service this car when it was due around 9 months ago and although she runs fine that combined with the possible false lamba could be the reason.
he was going to leave it until tomorrow and see if it starts when he opens but I have decided to change the following.
both lambas as they are 9 years old, vw oil filter, standard oil, vw air filter and vw spark plugs ( not nasty after market partco ones ) the car really should have had the service so I may as well take the hit.
if it was the starting motor or something he would know - im sure of that - he knows the golfs pretty well.
anyway prob gonna cost me around £500, the lambas are £240 cost or so from vw so wont be cheap but we need the car back fast
will let you know guys and thanks for the advice