Scirocco Register

Lads , I'm in trouble here. Driving home yesterday and car cut out at traffic lights, it took about a minute of cranking before it fired up. I got it across the lights but it cut out about 100 metres up the road and hasn't started since. It is getting fuel but no spark. Anyway, I called out a breakdown truck and he brought me home. Just left it there totally pissed off and went to the pub to watch the fa cup final and drown my sorrows! So today I tried to start her and she ran for a second or two and cut out. I noticed when I turn on the ignition key the battery light comes on as normal but the green indicator light is glowing dimly. And when I push the indicator stalk up or down the green light come on at normal brightness but doesn't flash on and off. It only flashes normal when the hazard light switch is pressed on.I also discovered that if I turn the key on and off a few times the battery light comes on as normal but 1 time in maybe 5 turns of the key the green indicator light does not glow dimly, it doesn't come on at all. Everytime this happens she will start and run for a second or two, then every time after a second or two of running the greenlight comes on and immediatly kills the engine. So I was convinced it was the coil was busted cos it gave similar symptoms last year, cutting out randomly and eventually dying altogether. That time a new coil sorted the problem. She also got a second hand ignition switch fitted last year to cure the non starting problem but in the end it was the coil that was the problem. So does anybody think the ignition switch is the culprit here ??? Or possibly might it be a dodgy relay? Any advice would be welcomed. Car is an 81 mk2 1.6 carved scirocco. Thanks.

check all the connections and follow the haynes manual for checking power at the tci unit.
it does sound ignition switch related but could also be a bad earth somewhere.
check your fuse box is dry and not covered in verdegree showing signs water has been in there.
i know i had a similar issue with lights on the dash glowing faintly so i unplugged the clocks and re plugged them back in cured it.

James, I carried out the Haynes checks and discovered there is no voltage getting to the TCI control unit. There is continuity between the tci and the coil. So I reckon the break is between the ignition switch and the fuse box . or between the fuse box to the coil. My car has one of those early crappy bullet/torpedo style fuseboxes, so I would bet next weeks wages there is an internal short inside the fusebox itself. I might have to bypass it, to get power to the coil. Anyway that's for tomorrow. Many thanks for your advice.

Well I got her started, as suspected the internal track inside the fuse box is fried. So I cut off the wire at terminal E2 and the other wire at C15 and soldered them together with an inline fuse between them and the beast fired up and is running grand now. However the green indicator light is glowing bright permanently now an the indicators won't work now so that part of the fusebox must be buggered as well. I am seriously thinking about chopping the whole fusebox out and putting in a later blade type fusebox. Has anyone done this before ??

a few people have changed the fuseboxes but in mk2s i don't know if its been done in a mk1 using a mk2 but i don't see why you couldn't do it apart from all the plugs that will will need to be cut and swapped.

My car is a mk 2.