Club 80-90 Forums

Apologies if this is dumb but I'm driving myself mad... again!
I just changed my gearbox tightened it up and van wouldn't start.
Found I had accidentally trapped and cut a wire which fell in from above from 50 at the ignition switch whilst tightening gearbox bolts. Loosened box bolts
resoldered wire took for a test drive stopped and restarted twice now nothing! Red dash lights fine, electric water pump? in engine bay fine, but nothing at solenoid.
Healthy battery, voltage at key 12.4 when turning key to start position, but at the solenoid nothing.
Changed starter, still nothing! Same symptoms. No solenoid click.
The red /black cable in question splits before the starter and heads off towards the ECU as well. All the fuses I could find checked.

The only other things I did were to replace the battery starter cable with a massive one I had and put a 1cm thick earth cable between starter mounting bolt and chassis as the box is really corroded and the earth lug missing.

Is it possible to test the ECU. Something more simple? any ideas much appreciated!

Maybe if you'd acknowledged my response to your previous post about your pedal sender I'd be more inclined to respond to this one.

Understood, I don't blame you. Do really appreciate you taking the time to help out.

I've been preoccupied with the gearbox and just didn't see it, out of order on my part sorry!

When I can get it to run I'll get on it and check all those!

So if your engine is now not *cranking* (and therefore not starting) it won't be an ECU problem but something more basic. If it's a diesel T3, the battery will be in the engine-bay, and there should be a good heavy-duty earth right from the battery to the engine-block, and also a heavy-duty power cable to the starter main stud. It would be worth visually checking these connections are sound, and detach/clean/reattach if in doubt.

If you have shorted the red/black solenoid wire from the ignition switch to earth, its possible the contact in the ignition switch has been damaged as there's no fuse on this circuit, the switch is probably the weakest link and may have failed, so it might be worth trying a fresh switch.

Thanks that sounds more hopeful. I've changed and beefed up the battery and earth cables in my efforts to get it cranking as both were hanging even though they worked fine.
I was advised I could have fried the ECU but there are atleast 7 spade fuses dealing with the passat part of the wiring and they are all fine.
It's strange that it started after repairing the wire from 50 at the ignition to the exciter twice before diving so maybe something else is/was wrong?
I'll check the ignition switch and the T6a wires as you suggested and try and find a way to get Vagcom to work.

I never got to touch the box but peeking over shoulders the problem seemed to be that it didn't recognise the reg number if I remember correctly. Is there a generic code to log in with a 98 AFN b3.5 Passat estate? I could probably just Google that!

Thanks again for the pearls of wisdom!