Car wiil not start? re-occuring problem - once in 7 months(so far)

[Jake242]

Hi guys, I hope you have some ideas on why my car won't start.

First time I had it(and there was nothing before) was 7 months ago, when leaving from a visit at my parents... the car would just not start.

The starter is running, turning the engine but it does not fire up... My dad, whos a truck mechanic by trade had a look at it and could not find anything wrong, he was testing that the spark plugs "sparked" and that there was fuel comming from the fuel rail... Everything worked... but no matter, it was not starting.

I had it towed to my Audi mechanic(official one) as I had some one year mobility service with them after a longlife service.

They told me when they had a look at it, that it just started up the first time they tried, they were running VAG-COm and it displayed no errors.

They suggested that it could be the immobilizer as the instrument cluster was faulty(they could not reset the service interval)

I was told on here(by you guys) that the immobilizer was not in the cluster until the FL cars(mine is a PF) so they had no solution to the problem... I picked up the car and drove off.

Now in the last 7 months, I have occasional(like one in ten) prolonged startups... where it runs the starter for maybe 15 secs, or where it needs several tries of 10-15 secs before it fires up... but it had so far ended with the car starting.

But yesterday... no more, it will not start(tried 15-20 times of 15-30 secs running the starter) and it will not fire up... it acts exactly as it did 7 months ago. I have tried leaving it over night... it will not start, taken the battery off and on again...nothing.

I have now taken the battery off and will leave it that way until tomorrow and then try again...

Is there anyone who has heard about something like this before. could it be a common fault?

Hoping for some suggestions, I would hate to leave it with Audi(as they clearly has no idea what they are doing)... ending up with a huge bill and still having the problem.

Thanks in advance guys

Cheers, Jake