I have a 1998 VW LT35 minibus which i have just bought to convert into a camper, which up to this point has been running fine, i have recently replaced the dashboard and under the steering column i found a thick black wire leading to what seemed to be a ball of insulating tape! When unravelled i exposed the ends of the wire which are 3 core, 1 white, one brown and surrounded by copper, like coaxial cable taped to these was a key head. I suspected this was a botched job on existing immobiliser, and on inspecting the re cut key head i found the immobiliser chip! BUT..... and here it comes, no matter what i do the van starts runs for a second and cuts out! i have tried holding the chip next to all three wires and holding each one together in all configurations whilst holding the chip against them but to no avail!!!! I have looked at several forums which state that the immobiliser must be reset, but what about these three wires and ideally i would like to get rid of this immobiliser and fit my own hidden keyswitch immobiliser as i have done on my earlier bays. PLEASE SOMEBODY HELP!!!!

Change the ignition switch, and look at the car racks, only here the chance that you will find it is very small! Because your model is quite rare for the USA, or you can find it on some forums / Vw communities, enthusiasts may well know! VW club

Try autozone dot com and make a free account, then put in the make and model and year and see if the list the vehicle in the free repair guides. You can get the wiring diagrams therre.

First think I would be doing is checking the points? Get a spark plug disconnect one of the HT leads put the plug in and touch the threads to earth, if you get a spark that's nice and strong you know your ignition side of things is ok. If not remove the distributer cap and check for cracks, this can cause arking and loss of spark, once you've checked this remove the rotor arm from the top of the dizzy and check for pitting on the half moon like tip. Change any thing your unsure of as these parts are very cheap, next with all this removed put it in gear with ign off and rock the van till one of the 4 lobes is at its highest point with the foot of the points open... I'm not sure on the gap I think it's about 00.14mm but please check this, to be fair I would replace points and condenser any way just so I know there good. Once you have reassembled all this you need to check for fuel, you can check the fuel pump relay by having some one switch ign on while you listen to hear the relay click, and checking for a switch live at the pump with a test light next use the test light to check for a switch live/earth at a injector to see that the ecu is sending the pulse to inject, following all of this I am confident you will find the cause. Ignore checking and replacing lambda probes till you have got it running as a failed lambda probe will not cause starting faults, especially on a cold engine as lambda is ignored till engine has warmed slightly.

Has the exhaust ( catalytic converter) been check for proper flow? I would try a test pipe to by-pass converter and see if that helps. You used to be able to buy them, but a good exhaust shop can make one pretty quick, and then try it.

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Hengine? Is that a motorized chicken?

Look for Broken Coils on the Suspension swing arms, at the bottom of the Coil.
REgards,DT

It must be the correct number and calibration, there are dozens of differences

check your mass air flow sensor , it take over fuel pump control after the engine starts