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[noel]

a friend at work is having a problem starting his audi  its a petrol 1.8 a3 p reg.

plenty of life in battery and starter spins freely, i feel its almost as if its an immobilizer or fuel pump fault.He has this problem for a little while but before the car would start as and when it felt like it (usually 2 days after),but now just refuses to fire up at all.
Anybody had experience of audi's or can offer any advice
Thanks in advance Noel

[henryd]

Needs plugging in to check codes etc,anything else is a shot in the dark

[Andy H]

a friend at work is having a problem starting his audi  its a petrol 1.8 a3 p reg.

plenty of life in battery and starter spins freely, i feel its almost as if its an immobilizer or fuel pump fault.He has this problem for a little while but before the car would start as and when it felt like it (usually 2 days after),but now just refuses to fire up at all.
Anybody had experience of audi's or can offer any advice
Thanks in advance Noel

Is the A3 the VW Golf with an Audi badge?

SWMBO has a V reg Golf. The wiring is crap, undersized cables with a small number of strands in each cable mean that anywhere the cables are required to flex they fracture.

Failures frequently occur in the wiring loom from under the battery tray across to the engine.

I spent two weeks off and on diagnosing what I thought was a problem with the auto gearlever immobilising the the starter motor. Moving the lever in and out of park would usually get it started. I eventually realised that the engine was moving just enough to flex the loom and cause the cable to the starter solenoid to make contact.

[noel]

Needs plugging in to check codes etc,anything else is a shot in the dark

tried my code reader on it but got link error.But i have suggested he gets the codes read.
thanks for the reply 

[noel]

Needs plugging in to check codes etc,anything else is a shot in the dark

a friend at work is having a problem starting his audi  its a petrol 1.8 a3 p reg.

plenty of life in battery and starter spins freely, i feel its almost as if its an immobilizer or fuel pump fault.He has this problem for a little while but before the car would start as and when it felt like it (usually 2 days after),but now just refuses to fire up at all.
Anybody had experience of audi's or can offer any advice
Thanks in advance Noel

Is the A3 the VW Golf with an Audi badge?

SWMBO has a V reg Golf. The wiring is crap, undersized cables with a small number of strands in each cable mean that anywhere the cables are required to flex they fracture.

Failures frequently occur in the wiring loom from under the battery tray across to the engine.

I spent two weeks off and on diagnosing what I thought was a problem with the auto gearlever immobilising the the starter motor. Moving the lever in and out of park would usually get it started. I eventually realised that the engine was moving just enough to flex the loom and cause the cable to the starter solenoid to make contact.

i think so. as for the wiring he did say that the A A man changed a relay one time when it would'nt start and it cured it.But only for a couple of weeks then it started playing up again. but i have took your comments on board about the wiring and see if any is obvious.
thanks for your advice

[pscocoa]

my son had best part of 6 months with starting problems with an A3 diesel - fortunately his was under warranty and he had nice replacements for a lot of that time.

they worked on fuel line and fuel pump and sensors for ages but it turned out to be starter motor - not showing a fault on diagnostics but by changing it problem cured - as soon as sorted though he got rid as this episode followed another 6 months of gearbox problems.

[noel]

my son had best part of 6 months with starting problems with an A3 diesel - fortunately his was under warranty and he had nice replacements for a lot of that time.

they worked on fuel line and fuel pump and sensors for ages but it turned out to be starter motor - not showing a fault on diagnostics but by changing it problem cured - as soon as sorted though he got rid as this episode followed another 6 months of gearbox problems.

will pass this info on to my friend,thanks for the reply

[slowboy]

Had a problem like this with a citrion spent weeks looking turned out to be some teeth on cambelt