Legacy B4 starts and dies

[serunox]

Good day. I've been having a problem with my 1999 B4. It ran beautiful for a year and 3 weeks ago it stared with its bitch fit.

So basically I start the car,the starter turns and the engine fires. As soon as it fires and actually runs for a second, everything dies.The electronics on the dash,radio and engine just dies.

With the key still in the ignition, 2 seconds later everything comes back to life, I hear a sound like something is loading/powering up and the electronics are back.When I try and start the car again,the starter turns, the engine fires slightly and everything dies again. This went on for 3 tries, 4th time I gave a little gas when it started to fire and the revs jumped up to 2300.The gas I gave was not enough to throw it up to that revs but 1500.After this the damn thing runs fine with no problems.

Every time this happened it was in the morning and it was cold.It only happened three times so far and every time in the morning.Today it happened twice,once at home when I went for a WOF at 7am and 45mins later when I left the garage. When I start the car later in the day its fine with no problems at all.

What on earth can the problem be?Is it the cold, spark plugs, fuel pup, crank sensor? I might take it in for a scan but Id love to get help first,see if I can fix it instead of paying $80 for a scan.

[Wiretap]

If your radio and dash are powering down the problem is electrical, not mechanical. You can stop worrying about any engine sensors and I'd suspect your alternator.

As the radio and dash are not on the main relay I'd be also inspecting the barrel switch on the back of the ignition (is independantly removable/replacable) for wear.

[serunox]

Thanks Wiretap.Ill look into those things and see if they are the problem. Do they have any signs of failure on them or is it just a case of replacing them and see if they work?

[Wiretap]

With intermittent faults it's always a pain I'm afraid, one can't 'test for failure' on something that only fails sometimes

[serunox]

Thats the problem,no sure way to find out.Ill have a look, see I can find replacement parts for cheap.If not Ill take the car in for a scan.Thanks anyway