This will make you laugh

[Ralph S3]

Drove the S3 to the shops with my daughter and the car ran beautifully. Drove home and literally as I pull into the drive the engine dies. I mean dead, stone dead. Won't fire. Never happened before. Can't believe how lucky I was that it didn't break down miles from home. So I leave it sitting on the drive for 15 mins to let fuel pressure drop off. After 15 mins I turn on the ignition and hey presto, no fuel pump noise. So, its likely either the immobiliser, relay, yellow connector, fuel pump or worse case a combination of issues. I go and have a cup of tea to get myself pumped up to troubleshoot the electrics in 30 degree heat.

Sometime later I decide to stick my head in the footwell and see if I can hear the relay clicking when the immobiliser is disarmed and the ignition turned on. Wait a minute, whats that switch taped to the front of the fuse panel??

It seems that as well as an immobiliser the previous owner put a second switch in the fuel pump circuit as some kind of secondary immobiliser. We had a load of shopping in the footwell and this must have somehow flicked the switch. I've had the car 7 years and never noticed it before as it is well hidden. Its been safely moved out of harms way and the car is running well again. If I hadn't seen the switch who knows how long that would have taken to diagnose.

R

[DJ8226]

Great story with a simple happy ending! You would think the previous owners would of passed this on, maybe they forgot to tell you.

[steve j]

Lucky to find that indeed.