HELP! Check engine light (solid) glow plug light (blinking) no symptoms

Grrr... out of nowhere today the lights went on.

I'm at 29.5k miles, I've had a rough idle for the past 10k miles. I have a chip and box for about 15k miles.

I don't have a clue what's wrong, there's no driveablity issues caused by the lights activating either.

My dealer is making me wait 2 weeks saying I can drive it, before giving me an appointment.

I'm thinking of selling my car after this, mickey you still have the M-B? I love my car, but I want to know my parts are good for another 10 years, and I'll have dealers helping me out, I'm loosing faith...

Now to track down BG or Tonino and try and get some help.

~Steve

Very interesting.

My break lights work fine, but my left rear light is out.

I have a 2000 auto

Hmm.. now that I'm thinking.. a few days ago the car started reving to 3krpms from a stop, I had assumed it was slick roads causing the wheels to spin (light rain).

This could prove troublesome...
I'll take out my Subaru 2.5RS for the night =)

Get the codes scanned; that's the only way to find out what's up. Dealer can do it, VAG-COM can do it. See thread posted above, or www.ross-tech.com to get your own.

::crosses fingers::

Waiting to hear from a contact..

dealer can't get me in till dec 6! And a tech even admitted they had no idea what a flashing glow plug light meant!

I'm putting my TDI up for sale.. before I start getting more little problems that incompetant dealers can't diagnose or fix.

Since we don't know which TDI you have, this is just a guess.

The flashing glow plug light is an indicator of a fault in the "drive by wire" system. That is the brake light switch, the accelerator sensor, or the clutch switch (if manual tranny). Since your report "no driveability issues" it is most likely the brake light switch. One other person has reported that if the brake light bulbs are burnt out this may be the cause. Search for brake light switch problems and you'll find info on replacing and taking a chance at cleaning it (but I suspect that would be a temporary fix).

Once that is resolved, the CEL may also be resolved. But you really need VAG-COM (or equivalent) in order to pull the trouble codes and resolve the issue. If you don't have it, perhaps some else is near you and can help out. See Who Has VAG-COM thread for assistance.

Grrr....
symptoms went away when i filled my tank from 1/4

2 tanks later at 1/4 full the lights are back

Take a deep breath and think calm thoughts. Done. Now go go to www.ross-tech.com and support Uwe Ross and get VAGCOM.

Oh you say your brakes work fine, sure. But the ECM gets a signal when you hit the brakes: hmmm, hit the brakes, drop fuel to minimum, and I don't know what else. So if when you hit the brakes once the ECM got an unanticipated signal, it notifies you with a CEL and it logs the error.
VAGCOM can tell you what error it is.

I am an engineer and I understand the problems we are all seeing. Given the techy nature of the car it is not real surprising. Yes it is annoying that the dealers can't always help you, but keep in mind the TDI engine has not been around that long.

I am the one who posted the blown brake lights will cause a flashing Glow Plug light. Like you, it came out of no where. I replaced the bulbs and sure enough. Gone.

As for the CEL, it sounds from your post, that it is intermitant. I spoke to my cousin yesterday and he had the same probelm, I think, no real drivability issues but once and a while the idle was rough. It was a loose glow plug wire. That was it. Dealer took 2 hours to find it and charged him for every minute.

Give it a shot, what could it hurt.

I also have a '00 with auto trans and the same thing happened a few weeks ago. Solid CEL with blinking glow plug indicator.

My brake lights work and the cruise control is also normal. It seems to drive fine and only lasted for two days and then went back to normal--indicator lights off.

I have put over 800 miles on the car since then and I'm hoping to see someone with a vagcom next week when he's in the area.

Jack

I also posted with a brake light blown (and fuse) but with a blinking glowplug light (no CEL). This is on a stick Passat. I would check ALL lights and fuses. When I replaced the brake light and accompanying fuse, everything was fine.--Steve

Steve:

You might consider checking the Brake Light Sensor Switch mounted on the frame of the Brake Pedal. It can easily be removed and checked in a twisting counter-clockwise motion.

A loose connection or switch completely unplugged with also cause a flashing Glow Plug idiot Light.

I believe a blinking glow plug light can at times be indicitave of a condition other than bad bulbs or connections.

While this is just conjecture, I believe it means you hit Warp Field Collapse too many times with the TB (pushed the pump a bit) and you blew a MAF. The sporadic DTC's will usually clear themselves once the condition that caused them ceases during consecutive on/off runs (you turned the engine off to refuel and that was the final time?)

Sometimes a partially dead MAF will clear itself, leaving the dealer at a loss to see what's wrong. Measure the voltage across the #5 wire to see if it's partially or completely dead. A partial should go somewhere above 1.3 to maybe 2.5+ or more volts when you punch it. Completely dead ones never change - and a chip with TB may mask some of the the power loss from a bad/partially bad MAF.

Check the MAF. Find someone with a VAG-COM. Try tuning the box much more slowly toward the max next time - and chill out at WFC. Make sure you back off enough so you don't hit it at any time especially WOT, because that's more than you can ask for from the TDI and get away with. Maybe bag the TB for the winter?

My $.02 HTH (?)

It stopped when I stopped to fuel, and came back 2 tanks later.

I've had an MAF failure before, that showed symptoms. This doesn't.

Also, I've had the tuning box for about 15000 miles now.

brake lights are good.

Any possibility of a bad ground connection inside the loose MAF Connector?

Code 17552 and subcode 35-10 are usually shown for an intermittent MAF grounding problemo.

What does the VAG COM say?

Don't fear.
Don't jump to conclusions.
Find someone near you who has the s/w to display the error code. Then you can get excited.

If you live near me, I'll do it for you.