No response from controller, car runs

I just did a timing belt change on my 01 jetta TDI manual. I got the car running and hooked up my legit VCDS and got the message "no response from controller" when trying to access the engine. The VCDS does connect to the ABS and the air bags. I have used this VCDS on this car before and had no problems. The car runs fine , but I need to set the timing. I have disconnected the battery cables and touched them together. I have a factory radio and it does work. The glow plug light does come on for a second when I cycle the key. I cannot see any blown fuses. After I changed the timing belt the battery was dead so I hooked up an (old very large) battery charger to the battery while in the car. When the charger kicked in high I could smell wires burning it the cab so I shut it down immediately. I feel I must have fried something under the dash. I now have a new, fully charged battery. Any Ideas on where to start looking for fried electronics. Everything seems to work fine.

Thanks
Mark

Ok I think I found the source of the burnt wire smell. It is a remote starter that the previous owner had installed. I tore it all out and insulated the wires that they hacked into. This made no difference with my problem. The car still starts. All the gauges on my instrument panel seem to be working. I pulled the instrument panel off and ran a jumper between pin # 5 on the green connector and Pin # 25 on the blue connector this is supposed to jump the K wire in case the cluster is bad. This made no difference. I need to find a wiring diagram to make sure I have the right pins. I got this information from another post. I am currently downloading a newer version of the VCDS software. I used the vcds to test my connection and got the following results:
Port status OK
interface Found
Type ross tech Hex USB + CAN
Version 1.81
Status Ready
K1 OK
K2 OK
CAN Not Ready

I think this means my k wire is OK. Can anyone confirm this?

I wonder if something is wrong with my ECU but my car does start and run fine

Thanks for any input

The KLines appear to not be stuck at Vbat or at ground. That does not mean that they are working properly. The fact that VCDS will not connect to the ABS or Airbags can mean that one of those modules is tying up the diagnostic lines. The best solution is to begin disconnecting modules one at a time and running a scan after you disconnect each module. Both the airbag controllers and ABS are prone to fail by tying up the diagnostic bus.

Thanks for the response Bruce. Actually the VCDS does connect to the air bags and ABS and show no fault codes. How does one disconnect the modules? pull a fuse? or relay? please explain. How do I know which one is which? Thank you for your help on this I am way beyond my level of expertise here.

you physically "unplug" the modules one @ a time until comm is established.... there are many modules including(but not limited to)
door modules (one at each door)
airbag
steering wheel (for multifunction wheels only)
cluster
ecm
tcm (auto trans)
ABS
comfort module
radio
fan control (may not have can)
and possibly others

Ok thanks Jim. I pulled relay 452 and the VCDS recognized the engine. It looks like 452 is for the multifunction steering wheel. So I am looking for a short in the steering column right? Anybody know of any common trouble areas in these? There were a bunch of splices in there from the PO who thought she needed auto start. I will start by checking these.

Thanks

When I unhook the small yellow connector in the steering column the VCDS works properly. This must be the connector that gets signal from the steering wheel buttons. I will start a new thread to trouble shoot the steering wheel functions. Thank you all for your help. This is an great site. The lesson I learned is not to use a high powered battery charger on a battery that is still connected to the car.

Mark

glad to hear you have narrowed it down ... I was helping a friend diagnose a car with a very similar issue...turned out to be, of all things, a bad or incorrect MF steering wheel module .... go figure huh!!