Hi
I have a 98 A6 quattro. I live in North Dakota. My car will not turn over on very cold day. Has anyone had this problem. I jumped it and nothing, all lights head light comes on fine. I can hear a clicking noise and i believe thats the fuel pump. What could cause this.
On other days when its not very cold I have to hold the key in the start position for a couple seconds till it starts not sure if that has anything to do with it.
And sometimes the car would start but rmp would go all the way up, i just give it some gas as soon as it fires and then it runs properly...
Please help.
Thanks

 

well now the sun came out and started to get a little warm but still -11. And the car started just fine. What could be causing this?

 

Engine Coolant Temp Sensor is often a culprit of temperature-related starting problems.

 

can I use the vag-com to scan for a faulty ECT.

 

It's like a $15 part (on ebay) and not terribly difficult to remove/replace so often people just replace it if they're having starting problems because it will probably go bad eventually (and again, easy/cheap to remove as a suspect). If the sensor gets bad enough it will throw a code (P0116 or similar) but it just depends on how flakey it's being that particular day and just how bad of condition it is in (I didn't get a code for months even though I knew it was going out). You can check the coolant temp using vag-com (Engine -> Measuring Block #001, 2nd column) and see if it is a practical value depending on the air temp, but again it could be giving you a 'good' value one day and a bad one the next.

Your first post is a little bit vague, you say it "will not turn over" but the important thing is whether it cranks at all or not (you said you tried to jump it which indicates that maybe it wasn't even cranking properly?). Coming from experience with a bad ECT in the cold, I could crank the starter for like 20-30 seconds before I would get any ignition and then if I was lucky it would actually start (then sometimes not able to hold idle point and turning itself off if I let off the gas). Other times it would start up in the usual 3-5 seconds and now that I have properly replaced the part it starts up in the proper 1-3 seconds.

If it's not the ECT, it could be the thermostat or even an ignition switch issue.

 

I guess Ill start with the ECT.
To answer your question the car will not crank or do anything.
The lights wont dim, it just sits there.

 

sometimes holding the key in the start position for like 5sec will start the car.