I would still try a fresh battery before paying 140 for a tow. Find a friend who has a similar battery and throw it in and try it. Jumper cables especially cheap ones won't cut it.

 

just curious, have u tried clutch starting it... or push starting or whatever its called? what about a faulty clutch? u said the car stops when u let out the clutch, would that do anything?

 

my jumper cables are pretty good quality and have worked fine before so I don't think that's the problem. I will try to test another battery before spending money.
phil I've tried compression starting it and that's when the car came to a stop when the clutch is let out, instead of the car starting up

 

ts called compression starting? lol... u think maybe the clutch or trans is bad? maybe shot clutch fork?

 

mm I'm pretty sure the clutch is doing fine. even if the clutch was terribly bad the engine should start up normally, right?

 

well im jsut concerned cuz u said the clutch seems like its stopping the car when let out even in neutral, so it makes me curious whether or not it would effect the enging turning over too.... just throwing out ideas, i could be way off.. just trying to help lol

 

if the car is turning over its not a bad starter duh okay,,,,,so lets get this far is the car starting at all even trying to start? if not than your not getting gas or spark

 

I would say get it towed home. I'm gonna be your gonna get a ticket before too long parked at this restaurant or broken into or what not. The starter on my 1.8t isnt that bad, but I think for a 2.8 your looking at a good 4 hours or something.... and what do you mean oil issues because of a clogged egr valve?

 

the car came to a stop as we were trying to compression start it while letting off the clutch in 2nd gear (since our cars have a pretty low 1st gear ratio). we also tried 1st too. nothing happens if its in neutral.

I was thinking maybe it wasn't getting gas but I don't know. my gas tank is about a quarter full and I don't know much about fuel pumps but I was told that wouldn't be the problem. I don't think the problem is that it's not getting spark because it's not cranking hard enough to spark? if the starter is bad but not completely dead I think this is how it would act. if it's completely bad it should just give a clicking noise and not crank at all, I'm not getting any clicking.

yes I've heard a starter replacement job on my car should be around 4 hours. the restaurant owner is cool with me and has no problem with the car sitting there. I've been having the normal egr valve problems that 12v engines usually go through

this guy I know that owns a huge vw audi junkyard can replace my starter with a used but good one for ~$200. he knows a whole lot more about my car than any other shop I know of and has probably taken starters out of 2.8 b5's very many times. he's a good guy and I trust him. only problem with that is that it is close to home so I'd have to have it towed for the $150 (still a lot cheaper total cost than any other estimates I've gotten) and he can't work with my car lowered so I'll have to raise the coils first

 

thats retarded to have the car raised to get worked on, imo. Andrew149 you are completely wrong in saying that if the motor is turning over that this means that the starter is good. If the 4 gauge power wire or whatever it is to the starter has a bad connection then rather then 12+ volts to the starter you're getting a considerable amount less. Or if the trigger wire to the starter is having the same issue the same cenario can occur. I'm still stuck on either the oil viscosity being too thick for the cold weather, or a bad connection. So are you used to the motor being turned over "faster" then you are experiencing right now?