Stalling shortly after startup

Ugh, okay, I see part of the problem -- thought you were from the NEW York... not the "old" York, lol. You have a UK Golf, so that may explain the 2005/2006 thing. At any rate, I gotcha... but, must admit, I haven't heard of too many people messing with the VVT chain drive or even the fuel filter on the MKV. I've replaced fuel filters in the past, but honestly, I haven't seen anyone bring them up as an issue and wasn't clear there was any maintenance schedule on them... as long as it's done correctly, a new filter would generally be a good thing.

The above said, I noticed on that link to Pelican Parts you sent me, ironically, there were a number of complaints about people have somewhat similar non-start issues like you due to improper fuel filter installation. A new fuel filter at least appears to be a simple fix, but at the same time, looks like a lot of people goofed it up (appears you can cross the input lines in... shows 2 of them going in... and the one guy said he flooded his car). There were a lot of non-start complaints.

So, first of all, a warm welcome from the States... and secondly, when did you change that filter and maybe give it another look just to make sure it's installed and functioning correctly. I'm assuming you trashed the old one, but if not, you might even consider reinstalling it just to give it a try. The fact that your car is not starting at ALL, seems to suggest something is WAY off... fuel, air, spark, or timing. So, maybe check the filter, again, see if fuel spit out under pressure when you release the line -- and maybe also double check your coils as well (noticed you used non-standard coils - I'd recommend maybe giving the individual coil packs a closer look as well).

Finally, clearly you have a good grasp on mechanicals, so you seem to know what you're doing -- I'm just trying to offer you some ideas. Also, I'm still shocked that you're not getting a fail code of some sort... but a fuel filter issue might be just the type of issue that would NOT trigger a fail code.

Hi and yes York, York. Thanks for the help and advice it is greatly appreciated. Fuel filter was done a while ago and I did it just because I couldn't help myself and caught the bug. Yes it is not so simple as the fuel lines are a pain but although it is questionable as to the life of it and if it should be changed I think for the cost and if you can it certainly is not going to hurt things but then on the flip side if something goes wrong fuel is quite a vital component.

I am going to respond by saying YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!

Just put the new spark plugs in and after being sat in the car for ages with VCDS (not a lady) sat on my lap with some metrics to measure and trying to pluck up the courage to turn the ignition and BAM! First time it started and started smooth.

I am still paranoid about my make shift hose however but it is on tight so certainly not likely to slip like the last one just looks bad.

So these are my take away's from the whole issue, really think hard about the make of intercooler you choose although to be fair the intercooler itself seems decent but no one else is going to make hoses for it other than the peeps who sent the intercooler so for all the hours and grief this has caused me I probably in hindsight should have gone for a more expensive well known brand.

In terms of the issue that ultimately was burnt out spark plugs causing the cranking but not starting, I can only assume that this was a by product of the hose slipping and causing a boost leak that in turn caused it to fry the plugs...........????????

I stumbled across an incredibly relevant and informative series of vids on Youtube by Astral auto repairs that talked you through step by step all basis to go through when cranking but not starting.

So before the plugs came I got as far as checking the exhaust cam by removing the timing little cover. This confirmed that cam was turning on cranking. This confirms the timing belt is intact.

I then with the oil filler cap off and an inspection light/cam got sight of the intake cam and confirmed that was turning. This confirms that the VVT chain,adjuster and tensioner side of things are not completely knackered or at least not completely broken but still could be a problem area I suppose but that is where a compression test would come in.

I check fuel pressure in the end when it started in VCDS but this could be done by a guage to and would have been my next area of concern should the spark plugs have not made a difference.

Finally my last test would have been to do a compression test as mentioned before and if not good, look to the timing side of things.

Awesome - congrats! I actually thought you already changed the plugs (when you showed a pic of them out of the car) and it was STILL not starting, but yes, as I mentioned earlier - they were very fouled, whether carbon or oil, or both. So, were they EVER changed? Not so bad if that's the first time they were ever changed after 130K (kilometers or miles?)... One question you'll have to address is what's causing them to foul so bad (maybe it was boost leak, but maybe it was something else)... your high performance mods could certainly have had an effect - so, probably a good idea to take a look at one of them, again, after a couple thousand miles to see if they're still getting fouled.

At any rate, congrats on fixing the problem. Eventually one of the possibilities - gas, timing, airflow, or spark were going to present themselves, and looks like spark turns out to be the culprit.

Yeah you make a really good point as not long after getting it I put the Iridium ones in that everyone raves about. However not because of this but due to being able to get them quicker and seeing equally good reviews I have put in the R ones. So the old ones probably only did around 4000 miles.

So to answer your question, they are not that old, so it is still concerning with the excessive fouling but good shout and I will deffo be testing one in the not too distant future.

Thanks again, was quite enjoyable getting to know my motor even better, even if it was a bit worrying at times