Brown Multiplug

[vicious-monkey87 0]

sorry for another thread concerning the brown multiplug issue!

i've used the search function but i haven't found the answer i'm looking for!

 

basically my pug will bumpstart but won't start on the key.

when i turn the key, everything lights up then when i turn it to ignition all it does is make an electrical humming sound.

i've been told that this is due to either a faulty starter motor or a bad connection in the brown multiplug?

i have limited mechanical knowledge so i was hoping that somebody could confirm that this is the right plug?

 

 

 

also could someone give me an idea as to where the starter motor is?

 

cheers!

[GLPoomobile 958]

Yeah, that's the ugly grimy little f***er right there!

 

For the starter motor, look to the left of that a few inches, under the inlet manifold. It's a big cylinder shaped bugger. Very large and hard to miss

[vicious-monkey87 0]

thanks mate, i'll have a go at that now then!

[projectpug 0]

The hum is the sound of the fuel pump. Usually its the started thats faulty well for me it is im on my 3rd in a year! LOL.

[vicious-monkey87 0]

The hum is the sound of the fuel pump. Usually its the started thats faulty well for me it is im on my 3rd in a year! LOL.

 

are they expensive to buy? or hard to change??

 

also, how do you disconnect the brown plug? mine won't come apart and i don't wanna break it! i don't see any release tabs or anything tho?

[welshpug 1,622]

doesn't matter if you break it, it should go in the bin

 

replace the starter motor solenoid wire, and the brown plug (either cut it and solder or crimp the wires, and heatshrink over the top)

[vicious-monkey87 0]

solder it??

i can solder no problem but i don't see how i can access the wires properly?

i can barely get my hands in there lol how will i solder it?

should i check the starter motor first? presumably if the starter works when wired directly to the battery then its definately the plug?

and if it doesn't start then i replace the motor but the wiring is probably fine??

[welshpug 1,622]

take the battery out

[vicious-monkey87 0]

i considered that but i can't seem to get the wires to reach over!

provided that the starter motor is not at fault, is it possible to keep the multiplug and simply clean up the connections etc?

[RINRIN 1]

did you checked your battery

[vicious-monkey87 0]

yeah mate, i took the battery out and put a fully charged one in!

everything else works, lights, indicators etc so i don't think its a battery or earth issue!

[miamichris 9]

look at the state of the brown multiplug! get the plug cleaned up(wires terminals etc) and have a look at the starter motor, like others have said mate..get a haynes book too, it will show you where everything is and how to test them etc.

[miamichris 9]

also, if you need more access, the battery tray comes out too!

[vicious-monkey87 0]

ah cheers chris lol fancy coming to bangor and fixing my pug? i'll provide tea and biscuits?

 

lol i ran out of light today so will have to continue tomorrow! hopefully i'll make more progress!

[miamichris 9]

I haven't even time to fix my own pug at the minute mate! stick at it, you'll get there, the advice you'll get on here is as good as you'll get! rupertfinch just got his cherry red 1.6 fixed and back on the road, he lives in bangor!

[GLPoomobile 958]

I'm going to cast my usual doom and gloom on proceedings I'm afraid!

 

Ref the brown plug, it wll be quite difficult to do anything with it with everything in situ. There's not enough free play in the loom, it'll be tangled up amongst stuff and covered in cack and oil, and then it's likely the wires will be corroded for a few inches either side meaning you have to trim them back, leaving you even less wire to try and rejoin.

 

If all you aim to achieve is to sort the starter solenoid wire, you'll probably end up creating more problems by disturbing the wiring on the plug if you try and sort it out with limited space.

 

I think you have 2 options:

 

1 - Leave the plug alone and just concentrate on the starter solenoid wire to begin with. Locate the wire (thicker turqoise one IIRC) and cut it off a few inches back of the plug (cut back further if the wire inside is brittle and black). You want to cut it at the side that goes back over the gearbox. Get a new length of wire and crimp a female spade terminal on one end, then join the other end to your cut back original wire (using whichever method you prefer). Now remove and junk the original wire connected to the starter solenoid and connect your new wire. Cross fingers for success.

 

2 - If you want to replace the brown multiplug, be prepared to go to a bit more effort...

*Remove bits like battery and inlet trunking to give yourself some more room to work.

*Clean the wires at the brown plug so you can see what colour they are. Make a note (better still take a photo) of what wire goes in what position on the plug. You want to be able to remember which wire does what, but if worst comes to worst, there's enough references on here to help out if you get stuck, as long as you know what the wire colours are and what position in the plug they are.

*Disconnect the wires from the plug at each of their sensors. Should be 9 - starter solenoid, alternator excitor, oil pressure switch, oil pressure sensor, oil temp, gearbox switch (x2), coolant temp switch and coolant temp sensor. The first 5 of those are best reached from under the car. Make a note of which wire goes where.

*Cut the brown plug off the loom left in the car and toss it in the bin. Trim the wires back until you get fresh copper.

*Now buy the bits you need from Vehicle Wiring Products. I'm going to assume you decide to hard wire the conections to the original loom rather than replacing the plug with another connector (Superseal connectors are common), since it's cheaper and needs no special tools. All the wires you need can be bought in the original colours for about 20-30p per meter. You'll need female spades for all the sensors except the oil temp which uses a ring terminal, and I'd recommend using heatseal terminals for these. To splice the new wires to the original loom I'd recommend using heatseal butt splices. This way all you'll need is the most basic of crimping tools which can probably be bought from VWP for about £5, but could probably also be found in a pound shop. After you've crimped the butt splice, apply heat using a lighter (just don't get so close you burn the wires) and the butt splice will shrink and the glue will melt leaving a nice tight waterproof seal. A hairdryer works even better, if you have a power source outside.

*Reconnect everything back.

Edited December 1, 2008 by GLPoomobile

[vicious-monkey87 0]

does anyone on this site have a working pug? everyone seems to be either fixing or crashing their 205's at the minute

 

i'm gonna spend tomorrow trying to sort it out, my mate's a mechanic so hopefully he might be able to call round and give me a hand!

might have to hassle rupertfinch to help me lol i spoke to him via pm earlier as he's a fellow bangor Gti owner!

[vicious-monkey87 0]

I'm going to cast my usual doom and gloom on proceedings I'm afraid!

 

Ref the brown plug, it wll be quite difficult to do anything with it with everything in situ. There's not enough free play in the loom, it'll be tangled up amongst stuff and covered in cack and oil, and then it's likely the wires will be corroded for a few inches either side meaning you have to trim them back, leaving you even less wire to try and rejoin.

 

If all you aim to achieve is to sort the starter solenoid wire, you'll probably end up creating more problems by disturbing the wiring on the plug if you try and sort it out with limited space.

 

I think you have 2 options:

 

1 - Leave the plug alone and just concentrate on the starter solenoid wire to begin with. Locate the wire (thicker turqoise one IIRC) and cut it off a few inches back of the plug (cut back further if the wire inside is brittle and black). You want to cut it at the side that goes back over the gearbox. Get a new length of wire and crimp a female spade terminal on one end, then join the other end to your cut back original wire (using whichever method you prefer). Now remove and junk the original wire connected to the starter solenoid and connect your new wire. Cross fingers for success.

 

2 - If you want to replace the brown multiplug, be prepared to go to a bit more effort...

*Remove bits like battery and inlet trunking to give yourself some more room to work.

*Clean the wires at the brown plug so you can see what colour they are. Make a note (better still take a photo) of what wire goes in what position on the plug. You want to be able to remember which wire does what, but if worst comes to worst, there's enough references on here to help out if you get stuck, as long as you know what the wire colours are and what position in the plug they are.

*Disconnect the wires from the plug at each of their sensors. Should be 9 - starter solenoid, alternator excitor, oil pressure switch, oil pressure sensor, oil temp, gearbox switch (x2), coolant temp switch and coolant temp sensor. The first 5 of those are best reached from under the car. Make a note of which wire goes where.

*Cut the brown plug off the loom left in the car and toss it in the bin. Trim the wires back until you get fresh copper.

*Now buy the bits you need from Vehicle Wiring Products. I'm going to assume you decide to hard wire the conections to the original loom rather than replacing the plug with another connector (Superseal connectors are common), since it's cheaper and needs no special tools. All the wires you need can be bought in the original colours for about 20-30p per meter. You'll need female spades for all the sensors except the oil temp which uses a ring terminal, and I'd recommend using heatseal terminals for these. To splice the new wires to the original loom I'd recommend using heatseal butt splices. This way all you'll need is the most basic of crimping tools which can probably be bought from VWP for about £5, but could probably also be found in a pound shop. After you've crimped the butt splice, apply heat using a lighter (just don't get so close you burn the wires) and the butt splice will shrink and the glue will melt leaving a nice tight waterproof seal. A hairdryer works even better, if you have a power source outside.

*Reconnect everything back.

 

 

cheers mate, thats a very helpful post

 

i've been out working on this for the entire morning!

i cleaned the plug up a little bit and cleaned up the connections using a wire brush and boiling water to remove corrosion. i then heatgunned them dry and left them for a while just to be sure!

the connections on the brown plug don't actually seem too bad, i ran a wire from the tab on the starter motor to the positive of the battery and nothing happened. this led me to the conclusion that the starter was knackered.

 

i removed the air intake, inlet manifold, starter motor etc so as to get better access to everything and also to check the starter motor.

the motor had a small hole in it and the silver bolt visible in the picture was also slightly wobbly for some reason.

i set the starter on the negative pole of the battery to provide earth and then connected the tab to the positive terminal and the starter juttered a bit and then worked fine.

 

this leads me to the conclusion that:

1) the starter was seized and has now come free, therefore if i put everything back together (obviously i'm getting new gaskets etc) it would work.

 

2) the power isn't getting to the starter through the brown multiplug, although that doesn't explain why it didn't work when i originally connected it directly to the battery.

 

3) because the starter began to work when i set it on the negative pole of the battery, would it maybe be a problem with the earth on the starter when its connected up??

 

 

 

 

 

i'm also planning to paint the inlet manifold, as it would look much tidier in the engine bay and also because i saw one painted recently and it looked mint!

any advice on how to prep it/what to paint it with/primer?

 

thanks in advance and sorry for the long read!

[pug_ham 240 3 Cars]

I'd replace the starter with one of the better smaller bodied ones from something like the GTi-6 rather than refit the big unit you've got there.

 

They are prone to failing just like your's has even when all the wiring is fine imo which doesn't tend to happen with the newer smaller ones.

 

All you need to change then is the spade terminal to a ring terminal on the solenoid wire & you should be sorted.

 

Mine works fine everytime.

 

Graham.

[vicious-monkey87 0]

where would i get a smaller starter from?

and how will i know it definately fits?

[GLPoomobile 958]

Ref painting the manifold - a quick clean and brush on of silver Hammerite will do. Just one warning though, it won't look right with everything else being dirty

[miamichris 9]

this is how it starts mate, you want to paint/fix up one bit...then think "oh that part beside it looks a bit crap now so i'll do that one as well..." and before you know it your engines out, your car's in bits and you wonder what happened but on the plus side, at least you'll have a box of fixed up and painted parts

 

f**k it just take it off the road, call it a "project" and start restoring it from scratch, that's what happens to a lot of people on here anyway!

[Rupertfinch 6]

I feel my ears burning!

 

 

I know feck all about the wiring, my multiplug had just been hanging around for the last few years and I've never touched it, there's too many random wires for me to start worrying about. It goes and that's all I care about.

 

Would be very interested to see how the GTI6 starter looks. So get one of those to satisfy my curiousity.

 

Mark

[Rupertfinch 6]

£90 plus! Eeek. Maybe not!

[GLPoomobile 958]

this is how it starts mate, you want to paint/fix up one bit...then think "oh that part beside it looks a bit crap now so i'll do that one as well..." and before you know it your engines out, your car's in bits and you wonder what happened but on the plus side, at least you'll have a box of fixed up and painted parts

 

f**k it just take it off the road, call it a "project" and start restoring it from scratch, that's what happens to a lot of people on here anyway!

 

Yeah, my Mi had a few starting issues and stuff. Halfway through stripping the loom out I found a dodgy spliced starter solenoid wire under the sleeving, but by then I was halfway, so it was a case of halfway back or halfway forward.

 

So, one completely new, homebuilt loom later ..............................and it's still being a cock

Edited December 3, 2008 by GLPoomobile