Dead A3....

[leothelion72]

Hi all,

My 1997 A3 1.8 Petrol has been sitting on my drive since March (the good weather has meant I haven't been off my bike since then). I tried to start it the other day and there was barely enough power in the battery to turn the engine a couple of times and not enough for it to start.

I charged the battery overnight and put it back on. When I turned the key it didn't turn over and instead made a 'snapping' noise (like an electrical arc) and produced a little puff of smoke from under the bonnet near the starter!

It turned over with a very weak battery but once charged I couldn't get anything from it.

All electricals inside still work, courtesy light, radio etc... but it won't even turn over now.

Any ideas? Where should I start?

Thanks for your help.

[_'98_A3_Croatia_]

...try replacing the alternator...

[Kyle]

I'm no expert but on my old clio i has a similar problem, try putting the car in gear and push it back and forth a meter or so (may need some help as they can be a big tough to move). Mine was the starter was jammed but I did not get any smoke like yourself or at least didn't notice any...

[m4gikal]

If you had been experiencing starter motor squeal prior to this happening or difficulty turning over, I'd of said that it's the starter motor that's died. Mine did last week.. when I went to turn it over one morning all I got was a cracking(clonk) for a couple of times. Replaced starter and hey presto sorted

Hope u find out what the cause is..

[Davecross14]

My car wouldnt start atall, had a new battery, no luck, had a new starter motor, still no luck, so i thought it must be the altinator, but still no luck, if i bumped the car it would start straight away and run fine, turned out that the earth wire had broken lose which was causing it to get no electrical power, well so the guy at the garage said, but at the time all my lights worked fine, one single wire causing that problem and all those parts put in, its a good job it was on my warranty lol so on the plus side my car got 3 new parts.

[leothelion72]

Hi all,

I know it's been over a year since I posted my starter problem but I thought I would get this down in case anyone experiences the same problem...

On investigation it turns out the short length of braid that runs from inside the start motor casing to the outside had completely corroded. The electrical arc and smoke was just that as the corrosion briefly sparked and fell apart (obviously the extra power from the fully charged battery was enough to finish it off!).

Anyway, I didn't have time to get a replacement (it was Sunday afternoon and I needed the car for Monday morning) so I fashioned a new 'braid' from a piece of old copper pipe bracket and it works fine! In fact it's been working fine for over a year now!!

I'm not suggesting this is the correct way to go about curing the problem but it does give an extra avenue of investigation before spending hundreds of pounds on batteries, starters, alternators etc...