My daily drive is a 1995 VW polo 1.6 8V and its totaly standard.

When I turn the key the engine cranks over for about half a second and then fires...It will run for roughly a second before it cuts out.

Even if you put your foot on the accelerator during that second of running the engine revs up but then still dies.

It does this about 80% of the time and it usualy takes a good 8-10 attempts to get the engine to remain running.....

It does this when its cold and hot....

Anyone have any ideas? Im stuck as to where to look?

Thanks.
Dunc

Fuel pump relay?
Does it keep running if you keep the key in the cranking position?
Obviously dont try this too long.
Steve.

Could be the crank sensor. If they don't detect motion, they'll cut fuel/ignition.

Fuel pump relay is possible, although a bit too repeatable to indicate that.

I can here the fuel pump running....kinda a quiet whyning sound...

If I get the car plugged into a diagnostic computer would that tell me if there was a crank sensor broken? or perhaps what else is wrong....?

Its a pain in the arse, I just stalled pulling out of a junction...(bad clutch control) and the damn thing wouldnt restart for about 2 mins :-s.....soo embarising!

does it have a chipped key for the immobiliser? usually if its got a chipped key and it starts then instantly cuts out sometimes mean its lost its code.

done a few with fuel pump relay problems worth looking there first

Don't know if this would apply to a 1995 car, but this used to happen with intermittent ballast resistor.

had similar problem with a 1.0 89 polo. Turned out to be something in the distributor. It would run for a bit then just die and would'nt restart. Leave it for a while and it started fine, ran then died...

check your key!!!

prob. the key is communicating with your immobiliser. If the Key is no good you get this kind of crap.

Grtz Theo