Hey guys, I recently got a '97 1.0 Polo and I've been having a bit of a problem with it. This is my first car so please forgive my ignorance. We had been having some problems starting it, but after a few seconds with the starter motor and a little play with the gas pedal it would start. Now, no matter what, it just wont start and I have no idea what to put it down to. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Christian

what happens when u turn the key? can u bump start it? is the battery dead?

The battery is fine and when I turn the key the starter motor does its thing, just the engine never starts.

start with the basics!!

take one of he HT leads off the spark plug and place it near a metallic part of the engine and have an assistant crank the engine (dont touch it you WILL get a shock off it) you should be able to see it sparking, if you have a spark it will be a fuel supply problem...

if not put it back on and take off the centre one from the distributor cap and repeat, if you have a spark it points to a dodgy rotor arm or distributor cap, if not then it points to the coil being defective or to a lack of an LT signal from the ecu...

a good place to start fuel wise is under the back seat, if you lift it up you should be able to hear the pump running when you are cranking the engine...

if you get really stuck drop me a pm and i'll come over and have a look on tuesday

Thank you so much for the help, I'll do that tomorrow and get back to you.