UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Hi guys,

After stopping at the local chippy today, I went back to my car to go in and it wouldnt start - all the lights on the dash came up as normal, but it wouldnt turnover at all. So called the AA out - in all fairness the bloke seemed to really know his stuff - traced the wire all the way back to the ignition barrel (after taking half my dash off) and he seems to think that this is the problem. So i have a couple of questions:-

1) How likely is it that this is the problem...could it be anything else?
2) How much would it be for a new ignition barrell?

Any help would be greatly appreciated - cheers guys.

Luke

It's quite high. I think most of the polo's suffer from this. Fingers crossed mines ok so far, lol. Im not sure how much a new one would cost im afraid

Ignition barrel or ignition switch? On mine it was the switch. You would go to fire the engine on and instead of ignition, all the blowers went silent but dash lights stayed on and the engine didn't fire. At the time I was covered by VW Assistance and the techie that came out to me diagnosed the switch as faulty. Had it replaced by local dealership

Ignition Switch that sounds like mate, happened to mine, just stopped working... everything else worked but the engine just would not start.... I managed to change mine myself as vw had never herd of it before and didnt have the right tool that was needed... great... so i made my own and did it... let me know if you need a pic or the instructions on how to do it i have them somewhere..

Its a remove trim under steering wheel, remoe airbag, remove steering wheel and then remove ignition switch... pain in the ars3

i had the exact same problem on my 1.0l mk5, it was the ignition switch and i was also under the vw warraty period so have no idea how much it would cost ot fix!

Thanks guys - it does sound like the ignition switch - got quoted £44+vat for a new barrel, so it's not the end of the world if it isn't that - I'll get the garage to check it out, because I'm in need of a service anyway.

Really appreciate the help - it'll save me a lot of time and labour cost

Thanks

Luke