Not Starting Need Guidance

[DanMK4]

It seems this topic has been covered a few times but I am not getting the info I need related to my situation from prior threads.
My car 2001 Golf 1.6 has had intermittent issues with the alarm. It goes off in the middle of the night, middle of the day, cold, hot, doesn't matter it goes off randomly unprovoked till I stop it with the fob or it stops it self within 15-20 seconds.
I decided I was going to look into it and just try to lock the car and have the alarm disabled for a temporary fix while I was going out of town. Not wanting to disturb the neighbors anymore.
Prior to researching it I went out to the car disconnected the battery and realized the alarm still worked. So after that I thought well maybe there is a fuse. So after puling the central locking fuse and messing with the key in the door (only a few turns) I got to the point where the doors were locked minus the rear hatch and the alarm was disabled so I said screw this ill just leave it unlocked. I put everything back together and now the car will not start. I can only assume it had something to do with me messing with it considering the car has never had an issue starting before. Thank you for the guidance.

Additional Details:
Key fob works normal.
The key light on the dash is on when the key is in the ignition but goes off after 3-4 seconds of turning the key on.
I hit the B pillar inside alarm disable a few times.
The car turns over without skipping a beat but will not start even for a second.

Regards, Dan

[Crasher]

The factory alarm is not in any way linked to the engine, the immobiliser function is provided by a unit in the dash which reads a chip in the base of the key, completely separate to the central locking remote which works with the central convenience system. If the factory immobiliser is triggered, the engine starts and then stops a second later. The alarm going off needs investigation using a diagnostic system to view the last four trigger points, quite often a faulty siren will set the alarm off. I would guess you have made an error with the fuses but I can’t offer a sugggestion at home without my work system to check against.

[DanMK4]

The factory alarm is not in any way linked to the engine, the immobiliser function is provided by a unit in the dash which reads a chip in the base of the key, completely separate to the central locking remote which works with the central convenience system. If the factory immobiliser is triggered, the engine starts and then stops a second later. The alarm going off needs investigation using a diagnostic system to view the last four trigger points, quite often a faulty siren will set the alarm off. I would guess you have made an error with the fuses but I can’t offer a sugggestion at home without my work system to check against.

Thank you for the quick reply, with that being the case of the car starting then stopping a few moments later then I guess my issue is not related to the immobilization system then. I went ahead and checked one of my plug & coils for spark and found none. I guess it is just coincidence that I am now faced with another issue at the same time of messing my the first issue.

[Crasher]

DO NOT check the spark on a coil pack in the old way, you will blow the coil pack instantly. You must ensure that the plug sticking out of the coil pack is properly earthed.

[Midge]

On the original alarm problem, this is going to sound a little bizarre - but just check your tailgate washer jet is in a fix position when you operate it. I'm going from my memory as it was many years ago - but there is a failure point on the mk4 where the water pipe for the washer jet goes up the middle of the rear wiper motor spindle. If the pipe seizes in the motor spindle as mine did, the wiper motor is strong enough to snap the pipe. This results in washer fluid leaking out into the tailgate - and I seem to recall it set my alarm off several times before I twigged what was going on. The only visible clue was there was enough pressure for water to still come out the washer jet, but it followed the wiper around as it moved across the tailgate (i.e. the jet was now effectively stuck to the motor spindle). Rather than replace the whole wiper motor, I bought a repair kit from VW for that specific fault, which suggests it's not exactly uncommon!

[Crasher]

When that is the cause of a false alarm, you may get a dim flickering illumination of the tailgate open light.

[Midge]

Makes sense that Crasher. In my case, the next thing that went wrong was the boot light stopped working, so washer fluid had obviously got to the microswitch in the boot catch. Still have that one on my list to sort at some point.