2015 Passat TDI sudden loss of power (engine control malfunction)

I'm not sure if this is related to phase 2 or not that was done 10k miles ago, but I had just filled up, then was driving home. When my light came on I was probably 60 miles into my trip, so I don't think it's related to the diesel. It being a busy store that is always getting new fuel and me driving 60 miles on the fuel has me thinking that's out the window.






I just got off the interstate and was at the stop sign. When I went to take off I felt a sudden loss of power that never went away as a light came on. At first I thought it was my transmission looking for gears, but the tranny was switching just fine as soon as it reached high enough rpm. At this point I just wanted to make it home. I wasn't leaking anything and my temps were fine. I figured I was in some kind of limp mode. A fully loaded semi could take off faster than me, but then again, I wasn't pushing it out of fear that I might break something.

The error code is a flashing engine control malfuntion. After about an hour of getting home I went to move my car, and the light wasn't on. I ended up driving around the block and everything was working just fine. Here is the flashing light code:




I already called VW to make an appointment Monday morning, as I need my 70k service done too, but I'm wondering if anyone thinks it's related to phase 2? Could it be a bad MAF sensor? If so, is that covered under the extended warranty? Anyone else have an issue like this?

Yeah same thing happened to me. I am driving the 2014 JSW, I had 4 or 5th fuel pump replacements and I don’t think they ever replaced the meter valve that may be spoiled of debris from failed fuel pump (what the heck was the mechanic thinking!!!!????)

I asked him, did you replace this? He goes like uhhhh...... I said next time I am back, you fix this! He said yes sir. So I could not go over 2,500 rpm or she will go into limp mode and CEL and Glow plug light comes flashing. Code is P0087 which is insufficient fuel flow.


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calimustang said:

Yeah same thing happened to me. I am driving the 2014 JSW, I had 4 or 5th fuel pump replacements and I don’t think they ever replaced the meter valve that may be spoiled of debris from failed fuel pump (what the heck was the mechanic thinking!!!!????)

I asked him, did you replace this? He goes like uhhhh...... I said next time I am back, you fix this! He said yes sir. So I could not go over 2,500 rpm or she will go into limp mode and CEL and Glow plug light comes flashing. Code is P0087 which is insufficient fuel flow.


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They don’t know what is, but said something along the lines of they found a black contaminate in a fuel valve I think. He said he does not know if it was the fuel I used or if something is coming apart. He said they sent pictures over to Volkswagen to look at them but have not gotten a response yet. VW is telling him what to look for as a possible issues. I have to go there later to pick up my car seats for my daughters so whenever I go I will ask for any code numbers. I still find it weird if they try to tell me that it was the fuel that‘s what is causing the issue since I drive 60 miles fine after using it, then Monday morning I drove 50 miles no issue to drop the car off.

Okay, they are replacing the HPFP.

Please keep us updated once the HPFP is in and you've got some miles on it. The rest of us appreciate the info and the ability that it allows our community and knowledge base to grow. Its always helpful when people update threads so the rest of us can follow.

Smashed Ixnay said:

Okay, they are replacing the HPFP.

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offtosleep said:

Please keep us updated once the HPFP is in and you've got some miles on it. The rest of us appreciate the info and the ability that it allows our community and knowledge base to grow. Its always helpful when people update threads so the rest of us can follow.

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I definitely will. It's sad to see the state this forum is in because of the diesel scandal. I still love my diesels. I honestly never thought this would happen to me though. I guess I'm glad I took it in now.

The service rep said they would overnight the parts and do everything tomorrow morning. Apparently VW said they would replace the HPFP and some other small parts, but not the full blown $8k repair that it could be. I figured this was all a one time thing, but I guess it was something serious.


What I did not like from my service rep (used a diff. one b/c he handled the "dieselgate" stuff) was that he told me they would take off the timing belt, so I might as well go ahead and replace that since they recommend it be done at 80k miles. I mentioned that it doesn't call for it to be changed till 120k miles (was thinking of my 2010 Jetta TDI, this 2015 actually is 130k miles). He said the max I should take it was 100k miles before I get it done. He said if I did it now I'd save $400 on labor and it'd be a $1450 repair, opposed to $1850 if I waited. Needless to say, I'm not doing it till 130k miles, which is 2 years more with the amount of driving I do (30k miles p/year).

I could understand him telling me that if I had 100-110k miles, but I literally hit 70k miles when I took it to them (70,060). I'm honestly upset they would even do that, since I've gone to this dealer for 9+ years now with only great results. I will most definitely go back to my normal guy, and explain to him why I went to this service rep. for this issue. When I dropped the car off he looked at me like he did something wrong for me to take it to another rep, lol. I will also talk to the service manager to let him know I don't appreciate those shady tactics. If I wanted to deal with people like him, then I would go to the VW dealer that is 8 miles away, opposed to the 60 miles this one is.

dealers gotta make their money, those free coffees and donuts in the shiny new showroom/waiting area don't pay for themselves.

The only time I think a TB job should be done early is if the water pump is failing and coolant is compromising the belt, which seems not that uncommon on the '15s.

Hopefully getting car back today. I was supposed to get it back yesterday but they said the tool they used to take off the timing belt broke so they had to go to their North dealer and borrow theirs to finish the job.

Wow please do keep us posted. Surprised this happened to an 2015 TDI.


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calimustang said:

Wow please do keep us posted. Surprised this happened to an 2015 TDI.


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They replaced the HPFP along with the fuel filter. The car was finished today, so I picked it up. All seemed well for about 5 minutes after leaving the dealer when my check engine light turned on. Back to the dealer I go. After them scanning it they said it's some kind of sensor (kinda close to the windshield wipers) that has to do with the emissions, but the car is safe to drive. They said they have to get with VW to see how they want to proceed.

I'm just happy to have my car back after a week, but annoyed I'll have to take it back to them sometime in the near future. Hopefully it doesn't take as long this time.

Driving home today going about 70mph I felt my car lose power. I’m back to square one. Once the car gets speed it’s not bad, but from a dead stop it’s a dog off the line. I wonder if VW would give me a loaner if it’s going to take another week to “fix” it this time.



I’m going to drop the car off tomorrow morning. I am able to shut the car off and the issue goes away (unsure for how long). I’ll take it as my high pressure fuel pump was never the issue to begin with since it’s still doing it. I guess that’s a good thing and bad thing as it did not fix this my issue, but I got a new HPFP out of this.
This sucks.

Fyi I have the exact same problem. They need to freaking clean the ENTIRE fuel system because your fuel is already contaminated from the failed HPFP. My vw service advisor wants to charge me 2 hours of cleaning up. I said heck no! Its your fault for not doing it the right way and only ONCE.

Am waiting for their reply or I go to VWoA.


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calimustang said:

Fyi I have the exact same problem. They need to freaking clean the ENTIRE fuel system because your fuel is already contaminated from the failed HPFP. My vw service advisor wants to charge me 2 hours of cleaning up. I said heck no! Its your fault for not doing it the right way and only ONCE.

Am waiting for their reply or I go to VWoA.


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Apparently they did already drop the tank, cleaned it, changed fuel filter, and HPFP. My VW dealer said VWoA told them that should be all that is needed to fix the issue. Maybe like you said, since the entire fuel system wasn't cleaned out, I'm having this issue again.

I know they better not try to come back at me and say it's bad fuel on my end. There is no way this would happen twice back to back. The good thing is they already acknowledged the HPFP was the issue, so I don't think I'll have to worry about that.

Thanks for the reply. It makes me feel a little better to have someone that can give advice to possible have the issue fixed on my end, since you are going through the same thing. On the contrary, I hate that you're dealing with this same situation also, LOL! Let me know if you have any updates.



I will say my car was getting better MPG's with this new HPFP/fuel filter they put in. I'm just going off the trip meter, and it'd never be this high going 70mph. Either I'm getting better mpg, or my trip meter is even further off now.

calimustang said:

They need to freaking clean the ENTIRE fuel system because your fuel is already contaminated from the failed HPFP. My vw service advisor wants to charge me 2 hours of cleaning up. I said heck no! Its your fault for not doing it the right way and only ONCE.

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OORRRRR...

It could be a misdiagnosis.

The fact that the car starts right up and runs just fine when the OP cycles the ignition tells me it is NOT the HPFP. If the HPFP fails, it is not the type of failure that can be reset by turning the car off and on again.

LOL I took the fuel meter valve out and noticed specks of debris in the area of the fuel meter valve.... I had it cleaned with carb cleaner. She ran beautifully for several sags and now shes back to square one! Exact same behavior like yours on youtube.... but TODAY she is fine. What the heck..... lol

Just private messaged you for my text number since we are sorta local.


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Just today's update:

Started my drive on Interstate 4 without any issues, but then after about 5 minutes my car just lost power. I was going 70mph in the middle lane, then my car mph started to go down fast. I put my blinker on right away to get over, and luckily the person behind me let me get over. I pulled over immediately, turned the car off, then turned it back on hoping that everything would go back to normal. That was almost a mistake because the car stuttered really bad to start, but luckily it did.

I started driving again, but the car would NOT go over 45mph. Luckily there wasn't tons of traffic, so people could easily go around me. 55mph was the min limit, so I got lucky around highway 27, because there was tons of traffic so everyone would have to go slow. After about 10 minutes in traffic I made it past Champions gate exit and traffic started to flow. Luckily for me, my car let me go back over 45mph again, so I drove 65-70mph to the dealer. Going 45mph was not fun at all, nor safe on I4! I don't ever want to do that again.



Dropped the car off this morning and later spoke to the rep. He told me a sensor was completely melted. It's a sensor right above the turbo he said. They are going to try to order the parts, so they can try to change them tomorrow. He also mentioned some wire harness and electrical work would be done. He was supposed to send me pics today, but never did. I'm going to call them in the morning tomorrow to get an update and ask for the pics I never received.

Here’s my sensor that melted. Still waiting for parts to come in.

What the sh*t???

I've never seen that sensor melt like that.

Lol me too. Just wow! Im thinking phase 2 fix must have made the turbo work much harder and turned super hot and the result is......


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So VW had them change both sensors above the turbo, about 6" (maybe 12"?) from the sensors, and a wiring harness. The service rep told me the tech drove 22 miles without issue, so they assumed all was well. I made it 3 miles before my CEL came on again! I went right back and told them the issue.

They said the code is coming from the same sensors (DPF sensors 04L-131-552-DL), and that they will have to talk to VWoA again to see on how they want to proceed.The service rep said it's some sort of electral short giving the code, but not sure how far down the wiring it is.


I ended up leaving the car again, because it's pointless for me to have it when they need it. I'm gonna talk to VWoA to see if I can get some kind of loaner, because this is over 2 weeks without a car now.

VWoA is going to spend more money trying to fix this car than it's actually worth, lol.

impressed, in a bad way.

Yep. Me too.


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As of Friday they still don't know what is wrong. They keep having the tech "test" stuff to see if they can find a definite fix before they keep dumping money into the car.

As far as I know I'm being told it's something electrical. He keeps saying they might change the ECU, but can't guarantee it.

Wow.... unbelievable! Thanks for the updates.

Wondered if any members here have stage 2 fix Passat TDI and if they had similar issues like yours.....


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Isn’t VW supposed to give you a loner for any work taking longer than 3 hours!? I’d be livid about all this! Another reason I keep my beat up old pick-up around, it has never failed me yet. My Jetta has also been in a few times now for bank 1 sensor. Can’t wait to delete!

Me too! I cant so wait to delete on my 2014 JSW. I miss the diesel rocket power in my old 2011 JSW. Nobody would ever want to tailgate me LOL


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Called today and the dealer said VWoA has them testing 1 more thing, because they still don't know what is wrong.


I ended up calling VWoA to ask for a loaner, and they said they'd get back to me tomorrow by end of day. They said they needed to talk to the dealer before contacting me back. I told them the dealer said they had 3 cars, and all 3 are lent out already. I'm being extremely polite about this whole situation, so I hope they give me a rental/loaner. I don't think that's much to ask for after 3 weeks of no car when they still don't know what is wrong with it.

Smashed Ixnay said:

Called today and the dealer said VWoA has them testing 1 more thing, because they still don't know what is wrong.


I ended up calling VWoA to ask for a loaner, and they said they'd get back to me tomorrow by end of day. They said they needed to talk to the dealer before contacting me back. I told them the dealer said they had 3 cars, and all 3 are lent out already. I'm being extremely polite about this whole situation, so I hope they give me a rental/loaner. I don't think that's much to ask for after 3 weeks of no car when they still don't know what is wrong with it.

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This certainly raises the question in my mind concerning how much pressure the carless customer can exert when the 3 hour contractural guarantee is ignored/not honored. This is certainly an extreme case with you suffering a 3 week disaccomodation.

The dealer called me today and said he is going to give me a loaner. I assume VWoA finally called them to give me a car. I'm going to pick it up tomorrow. When he said that I replied "I take it as that they still don't know what is wrong?" He simply said he still doesn't have an answer and they are still going back and forth on what to do.

Got my loaner. It’s a 2018 passat SE. I haven’t driven it much less, but it feels snappier than my wife’s old 2017 Passat SE that we had. I actually am kind of liking it. I tried finding the option to look at the mpg’s and I can’t find anything. It’s miles to empty, mph, and a few other things, but no mpg trip meter.