Trouble Starting on a 1.8T HELP!!!!

[James0013]

Hi guys,

Wondering if you can help me, my wife has a 1999 Passat 1.8T, which is the same engine that they put in the 1.8T A4.

The car has been sat for the weekend, no longer than 48 hours, but today when I came to start it up there was a problem. It was as if it was literally not firing on all cylinders, and the car was shaking and vibrating like crazy. Then after a few seconds of running like that it just died, after that it would not start at all. I could hear the starter motor but it would not fire up.

To me this sounds like a bad plug, lead or coil pack can anyone concur or give me some better idea as to what the problem is and what to check.

Also I can not seem to find what I know as the distributor cap (I am from England, but now live in Pennsylvania). I followed the leads from the plugs and they go into one lead and go down the bottom of the engine. I am guessing that they have done away with the distributor cap and now a computer sends a signal to the coil pack and that fires the spark plugs at the right time? (sorry but I am use to working on a Diesel engine)

Also any idea how to find the bad plug or coil pack?

Many thanks
James

[B5A4Kevin]

i believe that year engine has COP (coil over plug design) which means no distributor. unclip all 4 coils and remove them and then the spark plugs. look for one that is wet or fouled (black, sooty) from unburned fuel. it will look very different from the rest. clean all 4 plugs. replace if they are in less than decent shape. then swap the coils around and see if the unburned fuel follows the suspected coil. its much easier with a vag-com since you can check which cyl is misfiring at any time using blocks 15 and 16; as well as clearing the faults after replacement. the coils are fairly inexpensive ~30-40USD. they basically fail due to the ingress of water which shorts out either the primary or secondary windings. fairly common malfunction, especially if someone has washed the engine or if water is getting under the bonnet. if one coil is bad, the rest are on usually on their way out and replacement of all 4 is advised if 1 is faulty. if all else fails you can take it to your dealer. cheers.