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So my car broke down today, I have a 2001 VW Cabrio. I was on the highway and all of a sudden my car no longer accelerated when applying the gas and after 10 seconds or so it stalled. I tried to get it started again while moving since it’s a manual and it would start and stall almost immediately. I pulled off to the side of the road and there was a smell like rotten eggs. I tried to start the car again and it would crank but the engine wouldn’t start and applying gas while cranking made no change.
Due to the smell I’m assuming there may be something wrong with the cat or at least something else malfunctioning that made the cat overheat. I just have a simple engine scanner and when I plugged it in there were no codes found with the engine. Since it’s a 2001, is it possible for the cat to go bad where my car won’t start but it doesn’t produce a check engine light code? I’m just not sure where to start looking to solve it, I don’t have an infrared temperature gun and they seem to be about $50 and my scan tool is a cheap one that just reads ODBII codes so I can’t do the live scan of the voltage like in Eric’s video. Is there another way to check the cat and can it cause the car not to start even without a check engine light?
Thanks for any help you guys have.
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Is there anyway to tell how a connector is numbered? I found the pinout for the ecm here:http://faculty.ccp.edu/faculty/dreed/Campingart/jettatech/techset/index.htm
but the harness has 3 rows of contacts that make it up so I’m just not sure how it’s wired to actually probe it.
Don’t pay too much attention to the pins numbers, he used to set his up different than what was common, just follow the wire pinouts for your ECU and its pretty easy to get setup
Ved has some of my older basemaps available for download on the spitfire site to get you a base setting and mapping.
http://www.spitfireefi.com/To have better wiring diagram, you need to sownload the workshop manual for a clear wiring diagram.
Workshop manual for Volkswagen cabrio under 1999. But The ECU wiring should be the same.
http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/197245430-volkswagen-jetta-golf-gti-cabrio-workshop-serviceOr, you can be sure to have the right model whit Elsawin oem REPAIR vw SOFTWARE. yOU NEED TO WAIT TO GOT iT.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ELSAWIN-VOLKSWAGEN-WORKSHOP-SERVICE-MANUAL-REPAIR-VW-LATEST-VERSION-/400422501228?pt=UK_CarParts_Vehicles_Manuals_Litteratur
A couple of things we need to get straight. First, a rotten egg smell does NOT mean that your catalytic converter is bad. The rotten egg smell is from the sulphur in the gasoline and has NOTHING to do with the catalytic converter other than the catalytic converter separates out the sulphur which is the reason you smell it.
Second, the ECM does NOT control the spark, the ignition module does. According to the wiring diagram that was posted you get a signal from a hall effect sensor, probably in the distributor, and that signal is sent to the ignition module. From there the module fires the coil. The ECM does monitor the ignition signal and can adjust timing but the actual work is done by the driver in the ignition module. That being said I’d be looking to the ignition module for the problem if you’re not seeing a primary signal on coil negative. It could also be that the hall effect sensor is not sending a signal to the module so that signal should also be checked.
[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=52895]A couple of things we need to get straight. First, a rotten egg smell does NOT mean that your catalytic converter is bad. The rotten egg smell is from the sulphur in the gasoline and has NOTHING to do with the catalytic converter other than the catalytic converter separates out the sulphur which is the reason you smell it.
Second, the ECM does NOT control the spark, the ignition module does. According to the wiring diagram that was posted you get a signal from a hall effect sensor, probably in the distributor, and that signal is sent to the ignition module. From there the module fires the coil. The ECM does monitor the ignition signal and can adjust timing but the actual work is done by the driver in the ignition module. That being said I’d be looking to the ignition module for the problem if you’re not seeing a primary signal on coil negative. It could also be that the hall effect sensor is not sending a signal to the module so that signal should also be checked.[/quote]
As far as I can tell on my car, the ignition module is a part of the ignition coil so the the lack of a pulse when cranking should be before that somewhere. The wires that I have to test for the pulse goes straight to the ECM.
Is there a way to check a hall sensor? I don’t really see anywhere to probe. I know where the sensor is, I just don’t know what I should do to test it. Is it possible it could be the crank sensor or the camshaft sensor or just one or the other? From what I can tell too, the sensor should be giving a CEL code if it’s bad which is not and makes it more confusing. The crankshaft sensor is supposed to give a CEL after cranking for 6 seconds if it’s bad but it’s not. Could it be an engine ground somewhere? I found some but I’m not sure I found all the grounds.
Thanks for the help!
Edit: Ah, the one in the distributor should be the camshaft sensor. That looks like a bugger to get at IIRC.
It’s not likely that you don’t have an igniter or ignition module. I tried to track down a wiring diagram but I couldn’t find one quickly. I’m sure if you track down a wiring diagram you’ll be able to find out if you have one. Once you know the circuit design you can then begin to diagnose it. That aside you can still check at the coils to see if you have switching at coil negative. If you don’t see the switching then you know you have a signal issue.
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