Poor starting

[Mr Blue]

sounds like you have a digifant 8v engine.

Sometimes the ECU can play up causing the fuel pump to stay constantly on. it should 'prime' for about 3 second when you turn the ignition.

go have a listen mate

you will need to change the ecu if thats the case

[D4NNY]

nah, pump primes for like a second, then stops, until you crank the engine over

[rubjonny]

Replace the blue temperature sender before you do anything drastic, not expensive and defo the first thing to look at with digifant problems

[naut2k5]

What is this blue temp sensor exactly ?

[rubjonny]

Its the temperature sensor for the ECU, so the ECU can control cold running & starting

[...joe]

..... for some reason it is amazingly important in getting digifants running right.

[D4NNY]

is this the one located just on the side of the block, above what i can anly assume is the thermostat?

[...joe]

no its in front of the head on a plastic housing, between spark plugs 3 & 4. it's the closer one to the head if yours is too dirty to tell if its blue or not!

[D4NNY]

are all golf bits transferable, my brother has a j reg 1.6, was wondering if i could swap bits over? i think it could be fuel pressure related, as the pump primes every time you turn on the ignition, is this right or wrong?  i thought they only primed to a certain pressure then stopped?

[rubjonny]

not much on a 1.6 that'll be any use engine wise, the pump should always prime for a short time no matter what

Follow the top hose from the radiator and it leads to the flange I'm talking about, you should have 2 sensors in there black & blue.  Black is for the dash cluster & blue is for the ECU