tenacious84
Active member
2013 Passat SEL TDI - 157,000 miles
No engine or emissions modifications, no tune, 10k miles past diesel gate extended warranty
Current status:
Car will crank for an extended period of time, idle for 2-5 seconds and stall.
How we got there:
As far as I can tell, some symptoms started showing up last fall. I live in MN and as the temps started to drop it began to start hard (crank longer than normal before starting with a random shudder mixed in). Somewhere along the way the check engine light came on and my simple wifi OBDII scanner showed glow plug #2 circuit problem. From then on, when I would start the car, I’d hit start without depressing the brake to give the glow plugs ample time to warm. Whether this is a thing or not, I don’t know, but it seemed to help. Then on Dec. 6th the temps dropped, I forgot to do the two-step start when leaving work, and you could tell the battery wasn’t having it. I was able to jump start it and drive it home. I have an extra vehicle, so I didn’t put the battery on a charger overnight. Next morning, I got in and did the two-step start and it worked. Battery date showed December 2018, so I didn’t think the battery should be faulty (or I convinced myself it was fine, and it was just the glow plug that was the problem). I confirmed glow plug #2 had a problem and replaced it with a genuine part from VW. After that, starting seemed to have improved and the check engine light went away, but it still didn’t seem to be back to “normal.” This was around December 10th as I have the receipt for the glow plug and heater core which I replaced at the same time. Then on December 23rd my dash lit up like a Christmas tree when by clock spring went out. They are on indefinite back order.
I continued to drive the car and in late January I go the message Add Blue Error: 200 miles until no start. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it as it had popped up one other time and shortly thereafter gone away. I continued to drive it and the distance until no start was down around 35 miles on January 31st when problems really started. I was on my way home from work and after driving roughly 20 miles on the freeway, I exited and came to a stop light at the end of the ramp. When pulling away I simply didn’t have any power and couldn’t get going over 30 mph. I was able to drive the 4 blocks to my daughter’s day care to pick her up and hoped it would reset itself upon restarting the car. Well, it didn’t and from there it wouldn’t let me get more than a little bit above idle. I ended up idling the 15 blocks the rest of the way home with my hazard lights on. Upon getting home I scanned with my OBDII tool again and now had a P0299 underboost fault.
My thought at this time was the car had gone into a limp mode being it was at 35 miles until no restart. I also thought my DEF tank was frozen and not allowing a regen to take place and thus the cause of the Add Blue error. I parked the car in my neighbor’s heated garage over night thinking that would allow the tank to thaw and allow a regen. This didn’t help (or I didn't give it long enough to actually regen) and the next day I idled it back over to my garage where it sat for a couple weeks.
Then, finally two weeks ago I had some time to dig into it more and by this time it would only start, run for a couple seconds, then die. I charged the battery, but this did not help. I tested the battery, it was bad, so I put a new one in. Once the battery was replaced, it started up again, but would not rev over roughly 1200 rpm. After doing some more reading, I started the car and let it idle continuously thinking that once it got to operating temp it may do a regen. By this time outside air temps were warm enough the DEF tank would not be frozen. While car was idling, it definitely seemed to be performing some regen as there was excessive exhaust coming from the tailpipes and it was quite pungent. Care was idling for roughly an hour and then it stalled out. I was working on something else in the garage when it eventually just stalled. So now I'm at the current state where it will only crank, start briefly, and stall. I've made sure the battery is fully charged, but that has not helped. I did notice after letting it idle for so long that the new battery did seem to be somewhat drained when I put it on a charger (or at least that is what the level indicator on the charger showed).
Thank you for any help that can be offered.
No engine or emissions modifications, no tune, 10k miles past diesel gate extended warranty
Current status:
Car will crank for an extended period of time, idle for 2-5 seconds and stall.
How we got there:
As far as I can tell, some symptoms started showing up last fall. I live in MN and as the temps started to drop it began to start hard (crank longer than normal before starting with a random shudder mixed in). Somewhere along the way the check engine light came on and my simple wifi OBDII scanner showed glow plug #2 circuit problem. From then on, when I would start the car, I’d hit start without depressing the brake to give the glow plugs ample time to warm. Whether this is a thing or not, I don’t know, but it seemed to help. Then on Dec. 6th the temps dropped, I forgot to do the two-step start when leaving work, and you could tell the battery wasn’t having it. I was able to jump start it and drive it home. I have an extra vehicle, so I didn’t put the battery on a charger overnight. Next morning, I got in and did the two-step start and it worked. Battery date showed December 2018, so I didn’t think the battery should be faulty (or I convinced myself it was fine, and it was just the glow plug that was the problem). I confirmed glow plug #2 had a problem and replaced it with a genuine part from VW. After that, starting seemed to have improved and the check engine light went away, but it still didn’t seem to be back to “normal.” This was around December 10th as I have the receipt for the glow plug and heater core which I replaced at the same time. Then on December 23rd my dash lit up like a Christmas tree when by clock spring went out. They are on indefinite back order.
I continued to drive the car and in late January I go the message Add Blue Error: 200 miles until no start. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it as it had popped up one other time and shortly thereafter gone away. I continued to drive it and the distance until no start was down around 35 miles on January 31st when problems really started. I was on my way home from work and after driving roughly 20 miles on the freeway, I exited and came to a stop light at the end of the ramp. When pulling away I simply didn’t have any power and couldn’t get going over 30 mph. I was able to drive the 4 blocks to my daughter’s day care to pick her up and hoped it would reset itself upon restarting the car. Well, it didn’t and from there it wouldn’t let me get more than a little bit above idle. I ended up idling the 15 blocks the rest of the way home with my hazard lights on. Upon getting home I scanned with my OBDII tool again and now had a P0299 underboost fault.
My thought at this time was the car had gone into a limp mode being it was at 35 miles until no restart. I also thought my DEF tank was frozen and not allowing a regen to take place and thus the cause of the Add Blue error. I parked the car in my neighbor’s heated garage over night thinking that would allow the tank to thaw and allow a regen. This didn’t help (or I didn't give it long enough to actually regen) and the next day I idled it back over to my garage where it sat for a couple weeks.
Then, finally two weeks ago I had some time to dig into it more and by this time it would only start, run for a couple seconds, then die. I charged the battery, but this did not help. I tested the battery, it was bad, so I put a new one in. Once the battery was replaced, it started up again, but would not rev over roughly 1200 rpm. After doing some more reading, I started the car and let it idle continuously thinking that once it got to operating temp it may do a regen. By this time outside air temps were warm enough the DEF tank would not be frozen. While car was idling, it definitely seemed to be performing some regen as there was excessive exhaust coming from the tailpipes and it was quite pungent. Care was idling for roughly an hour and then it stalled out. I was working on something else in the garage when it eventually just stalled. So now I'm at the current state where it will only crank, start briefly, and stall. I've made sure the battery is fully charged, but that has not helped. I did notice after letting it idle for so long that the new battery did seem to be somewhat drained when I put it on a charger (or at least that is what the level indicator on the charger showed).
Thank you for any help that can be offered.
Last edited:
