TDI Newbie with Frozen Starter

Last night I picked up my first TDI: an '11 JSW, black on black, with a six speed manual and a panoramic sunroof. Mileage is 97K. At $10K I feel like I overpaid a bit; however, the car did come with a detailed service history and a four year extended warranty. I love the car and had a blast driving it home last night. This morning, however, it wouldn't start. To make a long story short, my local dealership diagnosed the problem as a frozen starter. It was caused, they said, by the car sitting on the lot for so long in cold temperatures. It's in their heated garage now, defrosting.

I'm concerned about this happening again. After reading into the sticky about frozen intercoolers I've come to realize I'm in unchartered territory. Does anyone have any recommendations as to what I should do to help ensure the reliability of my new TDI?

Do you have a bad starter motor or a frozen intercooler?

Matt927 said:

Do you have a bad starter motor or a frozen intercooler?

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I don't know. VW maintains that the starter is good, and that this won't happen once the car is driven regularly. Each time I turned the key all I got was a single click, which leads me to believe it was the starter. I'm just thinking that if the starter is liable to freeze then perhaps the intercooler is, too.

Forgive the vague question. This is my first turbo, my first diesel, and my first vehicle not built by either Ford or GM. This car is both exciting and scary to me.

Try cleaning your battery terminals, I’ve never heard of a frozen starter before, but then my experience is not that of some on this forum. A click is more in the line of a bad connection or knackered starter.

Welcome to the forum.

Tdijarhead said:

Try cleaning your battery terminals, I’ve never heard of a frozen starter before, but then my experience is not that of some on this forum. A click is more in the line of a bad connection or knackered starter.

Welcome to the forum.

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Thank you. Come tomorrow I'll clean those terminals.

As above clean your battery terminals. Check the battery voltage.
12.65 is 100%, less than 12 is discharged. Could be they sold it with a bad battery.
With car running battery voltage should be between 14 and 14.5

I'm new here too, but an old hand at wrenching.


First thing is to test your battery.
Tell us what it reads... if its been sitting around, they go bad, or as a minimum, it might need a good charge.


Then inspect the battery posts... should be clean and bright.


Diesels need a lot of amps to crank them due to the high compression.


One thig I will say to you is that the starter is the easiest to get to I think I have ever seen!


You pull the air filter housing out, and the Battery and Battery tray(5 mins work), and there it is!
Check the connections there too.
Look on Youtube for DSG service videos, and follow the steps to that the Airbox and battery tray out.

New starters are from $72 on Rockauto.

KeyTDI said:

I'm new here too, but an old hand at wrenching.


First thing is to test your battery.
Tell us what it reads... if its been sitting around, they go bad, or as a minimum, it might need a good charge.


Then inspect the battery posts... should be clean and bright.


Diesels need a lot of amps to crank them due to the high compression.


One thig I will say to you is that the starter is the easiest to get to I think I have ever seen!


You pull the air filter housing out, and the Battery and Battery tray(5 mins work), and there it is!
Check the connections there too.
Look on Youtube for DSG service videos, and follow the steps to that the Airbox and battery tray out.

New starters are from $72 on Rockauto.

Click to expand...

With the engine off the battery reads 12.80V and 729 CCA (though it's rated for 640 CCA). The battery appears to be an OEM battery. Posts and terminals are clean. Since the car was "defrosted" at the dealership it's been starting up without issue. We'll see how it does next week when the temperature drops into the single digits.