Car battery fine, but won't crank?

[peter_booker2003]

Came out to the car this morning and it won't start. I took the battery of my Leon FR TFSI to check to see if it was a battery problem. Still nothing. I've checked fuses in both the engine bay and to the right of the dash and they are all fine. I have checked codes with VCDS, again, everything is fine.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[MIJ_JAGGER]

Can you hear it clicking when you try and turn it?
Had something similar recently, starter motor died

[peter_booker2003]

yep, can hear it clicking but nothing happening.

Whats the round about cost of starter motor replacement?

[MIJ_JAGGER]

I picked one up from a breaker, £40 and replaced myself, easy enough
Be sure to match the part number as they differ from DSG and manual.
Part number was 02E911023J, mines a DSG though.
Donor was a 2010 Audi A3 with 20,000 miles on it.

https://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Volkswagen_Golf_GTI_Mk_V/17-ELEC-Starter_Replacement/17-ELEC-Starter_Replacement.htm

[pudding]

Whack the starter and or starter solenoid with a hammer a few times.   If it starts then, MIJ is bang on.

If the solenoid is clicking, that outrules that, so probably a dead motor.    Knocking it with a hammer usually jolts the carbon brushes onto a less worn part of the commutator.   Same diagnosis method works with lift pumps in petrol tanks!

[nails1979]

you can also try putting it in 3rd gear, release the handbrake and rock the car back and forth, that sometimes releases the starter, most of the time you can clean them out and get them working again but for the price of a new one you might aswell replace while you're on

[MIJ_JAGGER]

Yep whacking it got mine started again and did so for another 5 months lol
Second time round all the whacking in the world couldn’t bring it back to life, expected.
Even tested it out the car, solenoid was dead along with the motor

[peter_booker2003]

Thanks for the help so far guys.

Managed to bump start the car this evening, runs fine when bumped and shows no codes.

Turned off, and same thing again. Won’t turn over.

Any ideas?

[MIJ_JAGGER]

Probably won’t be the starter then mate if you can jump start the car...

[GVK]

See if you can check the short braided wire that goes between the starter and the solenoid, they snap on VAG stuff.

Solenoid clicks but no power to the motor.

[Dan_FR]

If it bump starts but wont start from the motor, then its either the wiring to the solenoid (ruled out if clicking), the solenoid (doubtful if clicking), the wiring to the starter (as described above - unlikely but possible) or (very likely) the starter motor itself

Plenty of folk breaking these engines on Facebook and/or eBay, or you can get a reconditioned one from plenty of motorfactors from the £60-120 mark depending on brand

[MIJ_JAGGER]

Read that completely wrong, I thought you wrote jump start, my bad

[pudding]

Could still be the solenoid.  A click just means the big copper contact plates have made contact with each other, but may have landed on a carboned up or burned away spot.  Could also still be the motor.

As above, bumping just uses the gearbox to turn the crank instead of the motor, but is not generally advised due to the lack of oil pressure.

[MIJ_JAGGER]

Whip the 2 bolts off and test the starter out the car

[peter_booker2003]

Thanks for all the help. Seems the starter is buggered. I've got a new one being picked up tomorrow, so going to give it a bash tomorrow evening. Any pointers for doing the swap, or is it fairly straight forward?

Thanks