Car starts when cold, car starts when warm except starter will not stop trying to engage. replaced starter and still happening 2003

Just guessing, but try checking the battery connections and the battery! It sounds like it was cold. I believe the ECU will keep it from starting if the voltage from the battery is low. Turning on the lights warmed up the battery a little and increased its terminal voltage. I have seen similar things in the past. Pops always turned on the lights for a minute when starting in cold weather.

Your armature can be hanging up when the starter gets warm.

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When you said "it wouldn't start" did it turn over (starter cranking the engine) or did it act like the battery was dead and wouldn't crank, even though all the dash lights lit up?

If it simply didn't crank over but then by you shifting it out of park, then back into park, may indicate a park/neutral switch problem.

It may have been something as simple as the shifter, when the vehicle was last parked, didn't fully engage the park/neutral switch into the park position. BUT by you moving the shifter out and back into park it engaged the switch.

Cold weather can do some strange things sometimes when it comes to mechanical devices. IF it acts up again, simply try the "trick" that worked the last time.

It may just be temperature related and may not give any more problems once the weather warms up.

Hope this helps.

Chances are you have a bad starter solenoid

What do you have to do to get it to crank ?
You could try cranking it in neutral to see if the neutral safety switch is acting up. It could also be a faulty relay or connection.

Sounds like a Solenoid might be bad on the starter if it spins freely and a high rate of speed without engaging.

Also, the relay could be bad.

I am ot sure if the fuel filter and pressure regulator would cause this problem.

No code will show with a bad starter or bad relay, I don't believe.

Good luck with this one.

I have the same problem, except this happens below 29 degrees. If jiggling keys dont work. I loosened the steering wheel adjusted and banged it up and down a couple times it worked every time so far. also the engine stopped 3 times while driving on interstate, restarting worked. this is a 2003 tdi with 90k miles on it. I am not going to try to repair until next winter. if the problem comes up. i will replace starter key switch. I think is has something with cold and wireing retracting when cold.

Replace starter.

Turn the key on and wait 10 seconds. see if that helps, let me know if you will please

You have a bad starter. A faulty starter will function when its cold but when it heats up, it takes more energy to get the starter to engage. Your problem is exhibiting the classic symptoms of a bad starter. I hope this solves your problem and the best of luck to you.