Mk2 golf gti 16v wont start... no spark

[rossko]

Hi all, sorry i'm not a mechanic so excuse me if i don't know what you are talking about:

I've just bought a 16valver that doesn't work but really want to get it working... I paid £50 for it and it has lovely alloys, bodywork is mint and has load of money spent on it getting working (also has electric recaro seats) however there is no spark.

recently looking at the paperwork it has had new ht leads, battery, and ignition coil.. however no joy! a friend who had a play said that there was only 5.6volts going to the coil and that there should be near 12v however i'm not too sure what that means...  could anyone help me get this beautiful car working as it appears it has been sitting doing nothing for many years.

many thanks,

Ross

[takethefifth]

First I would check the battery is fully charged and putting out 12v.  You would check this by using a multimeter across the terminals of the battery. Batterys don't tend to like being stood for any period so it may just need a charge.

Have you tried jump starting it?

[topbloke77]

I had a "no spark" issue after my car was sitting for a month or two. I traced it back to the spade connectors on the coil. I cleaned these up and it fixed the problem. - worth a try -  amongst many other  things - good luck

[rubjonny]

Lift up the small plastic cover at the very top of the engine bay just below the windscreen on the driver side, you'll see a metal bracket with a small electrical thing bolted on top, and a larger electrical thing bolted underneath.  Get another small electrical thing from another VW, pretty much any VW between 85-92 should have one, carb or otherwise

If you want to get technical about it though, that unit is called the 'TCI-H' unit, and is responsible for controlling the coil spark

If that doesn't help check the wiring to this unit and the coil & dizzy, look for snapped wires and dislodged pins in the electrical plugs.

[rossko]

thanks guys this is all really good stuff!!! i've bought an ignition module (tci-h unit? - cheers rubjonny) and can't wait to get back home and try it!! the battery is definately good because i swopped it with my mk3 gti (because the mk2 one was flat) can anyone confirm how many volts should be going into the coil? - if it is just the ignition module that is buggered i've just got the sale of the century... i'll try and get some photos of it when i'm back home (currently at uni address). what is a spade connector?

you guys are the best i'm so excited! in the summer i'm touring around europe in it... who's coming?

[rubjonny]

spade connector refers to a largish flat connection, like this:



If ya get yourself a haynes manual it details how to test the coil & TCI unit

[rossko]

cheers for that.. how many volts can the human body handle without dying... i know the purpose of a coil is to turn basically say 12v into more like 35,000 volts... i'm scared to read the haynes manual incase it encourages me to test the coil myself... and why do you happen to have spade connectors next to your computer to take a photo of... slightly wierd!

however here is a question... when i first bought this mk2 golf gti it worked for 3 minutes and then stalled... do you think that this could have been the ignition module dying... or do you think that this is a seperate problem?

[rubjonny]

could be due to a weak spark i guess?  that pic is off ebay

its not volts that kills its amps, so no worries.  however a jolt from a HT lead hurts so be carefull when messing with spark plug wires 

[rossko]

do you know what would cause the ignition module to break? i believe it may have had a similar problem before and may have been replaced a few years back. (which is why the owner sold it to me for £50... even threw in the haynes manual with it... upgraded sound system... thatcham alarm... big bumpers the list goes on.

Do you know what happens before power reaches the ignition module... in detailed steps from say from turning the key... fusebox... ECU etc... thought you might know as you seem to know so far what you are talking about ;-)

many thanks again!

Ross

[rubjonny]

It could be a problem with water backing up in the scuttle area due to blocked drain holes, theres one each side.  if it got deep enough it could damge it I guess.

The FEI unit (large thing bolted inside the metal bracket, some call it the 'ECU' tho technically it isn't as it only does the ignition on a 16v) gets a vacuum feed, as well as a signal from the hall sender in the dizzy so it knows how much load is on the engine as well as the exactl position of the rotor arm.  It also has a temperature feed from a sensor on the side of the block, with all this information the FEI unit then tells the TCI-H unit exactly when to send the spark signal to the coil