MarkD Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 Well I didn’t get into work last week. But it’s not all cool as the reason was that my golf tractor died on me. I was due in work at 10am but I only got within 2/3 of a mile of it, according to the motorway sign I stopped in front of anyway. There was a bang from under the bonnet and the car started to slow down so I pulled it onto the hard shoulder. It would still turn over but not start and gave the impression I was out of Diesel but the gauge said I had a dribble or two left, but I left nothing to chance and slapped my hazards on, grabbed my can from the boot and started off up the hard shoulder in the cold. Now 2/3 of a mile doesn’t seam far until you have to walk it. But a nice man pulled over and gave me a lift to the petrol station so I only had to make the walk back, restored my faith that there are some nice people about. Anyway it wasn't the diesel surprise surprise. Time to call the RAC. But no....less then a £1 on my mobile, typical. Called the wife and she called the RAC for me. 30 minutes and they were there, very impressed as i was freezing. Seam'd like an engine mounting had gone and the other 2 are all that stopping my engine hitting the deck. Also maybe thrown some valves. So he obviously didn't fix my motor at the roadside, but he towed me the 33 miles back to my house, what a nice man. Anyway I couldn't do anything to it then as it was bloody Sunday, but got a holiday out of it. Dai (my mechanic) had a look at it; he didn’t really think there was anything wrong with the engine mountings as they almost never go. Anyway he came around late last week with what looked like half his garage in the back of his estate car... It transpired that the mounting bracket was being held onto the engine by 1 bolt only, and that was of the wrong type!!! He had new bolts but couldn’t get some of them in the holes? Basically as 2 of the bolts had sheered off and were stuck in my engine. "Engine needs to come out and bolts drilled out init" was the response I got He winched the engine up on a crane like thingy and inserted 2 bolts and everything seamed ok...then the thing wouldn’t start as the battery was as bloody flat as a witch’s tit Off the battery came and I put it on charge over night. I paid Dai (cheap as well he was) and promised I would call him next week to arrange to get the car into his workshop to get the bolts out. His number went into my mobile phone as he is a very handy (and cheap) guy to know. Put the battery on the next morning and it took a few cranks to get started but then ran like a dream...untill this morning Flat as a kipper again this morning or so it seamed. There maybe an electrical problem too as the digital clock reset itself to 00:00 also, and there was an electrical noise too. Battery is going to come off again tonight and get charged again, but im not sure it will last more than a few days. Should I get a new battery, or is there something else wrong? Help... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rustynuts Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 First up, what engine do you have and when did you have the timing belt changed? Second up, it could be the battery that's failing and they have an expected life of only a few years, so a new one wouldn't go amiss. It's also possible that the engine dropping has pulled a wire somewhere which is now causing your drain. Have a check at all the connections for anything blatantly obvious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkD Posted February 6, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2006 I have a 1.9 Non Turbo Golf Diesel Apparently the battery looks original, which would make it 11 years old!!! So I’m gonna get this changed I think. I am only doing a few miles a day at the moment and not my daily run from Port Talbot to Cardiff/Newport 7 days a week, so maybe my battery is not getting a long enough run to get charged up? I’ve thought of the wire pulling out of a loom somewhere and will have to have another rummage under the bonnet, but since charging the battery my clock hasn't reset itself, so maybe it is just the battery...dunno Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kite Posted February 6, 2006 Report Share Posted February 6, 2006 Diesels use a lot of batt power when starting (glow plugs and starter motor) the batt on my old golf lasted 5yrs. I think yours may be a record for a vw batt ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rustynuts Posted February 6, 2006 Report Share Posted February 6, 2006 When was the timing belt changed? Battery sounds fecked to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkD Posted February 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 Well i replaced the starter motor around 6 months ago as it packed in. Also replaced the glow plugs at the same time. The timing belt is only a few 1000 miles old. Im guessing its the battery. Its been running for nearly a week now and it seams ok atm, but i will get it changed as soon as i get a chance. Clocks havent reset themselves since i charged it either??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rustynuts Posted February 9, 2006 Report Share Posted February 9, 2006 Sounds to me as though the people who replaced the timing belt put the old bolts back in the engine mount which has to be removed to fit the belt. These bolts are single use only as they're "torque to yield" or stretch bolts. They're tightened to a specific torque and if you re-use them they snap!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkD Posted February 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2006 Nah the guy who replaced the only bolt that was left said it was completely the wrong bolt!!! 2 bolts have snapped off in the engine, 1 droped out and the other one was wrong anyway...so his guess is all of them were probably wrong. Anyway my tractor nearly didnt start again this morning. It turned over and the started seamed to stop. On second try it started but the clock reset to zero again. Im thinking some electrical issue here maybe, as well as a new battery needed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danksy Posted February 12, 2006 Report Share Posted February 12, 2006 Try attaching some more earthing straps to improve things Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkD Posted February 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 Earthing straps eh...do you think one of the existing one is broken maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danksy Posted February 21, 2006 Report Share Posted February 21, 2006 Not necessarily, it could just be a bad earth... try fixing some new earthing straps (even in different places) to see if this helps. To try and explain the principles see this linky from WAK-TT on the tt-forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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