3 cylinders

[ovw251]

Hi All

Have borrowed a mk3 for a couple of weeks with the intention of purchase , has done a few k's 200 and lots of bits renewed and seem to run like a dream but after a feww days of not driving the car won't start like the battery is low, only 6 months old. It happened again last night as we were delivering the car to its owner and was running and sounding like a tractor on only 3 cylinders really rough, have had a bit water out of the exhaust also on start up. Is this normal and what could it be flattening the battery? Dirty fuel or spark problem with the idle , but the battery thing has got me. Halfway to our destination after thinking the engine was going to die it came good, Maybe distributor or what I don't know, it had rained alot, does the ecu ever get wet and do this sort of thing
cheers Holger

[gldgti]

battery needs to be a reputable brand, with a good rating of atleast 500cca.

i would guess its an earthing problem. if you have bad earth to the engine block and body, the ignition will be temperamental. it will flatten the battery, give weak spark causing plug fouling and make the car run badly.

check that the main earth cable is intact and firly bolted to the gearbox/engine. replace it if it looks even a littel suspect. you can get replacement earth cables from supercheap, of the bosch variety for under $20.

[Jmac]

On your misfire comment try this also - remove the metal jacket for the dizzy cap. You will find the cap will be filthy, clean this and clean the inside if the cap too. When the metal jacket is on the spark arcs to the engine block. Very common fault. Clean the cap and keep the jacket off.
Good luck oh and by the way as the previous post states these cars are bad for earthing problems clean them all the ones on the cylinder head especially.

[h100vw]

If it's not the shield on the cap, my guess would be the metal covers at the plug ends. Take them off too.

Gavin