SyncroHead
Member
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2013
- Location
- Southern California
- TDI
- 2004 Beetle GLS TDI, 2015 Golf SportWagen S TDI, 2015 Passat SE TDI
My 2015 GSW with 6-sp DSG transmission and push-button start was "new" in 2017 when we bought it from the dealer after having part 1 of the settlement modifications complete. Still under original warranty. Car has about 18K miles on it.
The car has spontaneously died while driving 5 times in the past 1.8 years. The first couple times, I thought it was just a fluke, but the 3rd, 4th, and now 5th time I've taken it to the dealer.
Behavior: Driving steadily along with no issues. Suddenly the engine stops running. Cost to side of road. Car is still "on", but engine is not running. Glow plug indicator is on. Pressing the brake pedal and the start button, the car cranks quickly, but will not start even after 20 seconds of cranking. Foot off brake and push the "start" button so car is completely off. Depress brake and then the start button again and car starts immediately as if there were no issue.
No fault codes are set when this happens.
Repeat this behavior for failures 2, 3, and 4 over a period of about a year. Months and thousands of miles go by between occurrences. Dealer could find no issue after 3rd time. Dealer (at VW recommendation) re-downloaded the ECU firmware (same version) to see if that would remedy the issue.
5th occurrence happened 2-16-19 at highway speed and car coasted to side of freeway. After turning car off, the car started again immediately. Upon putting car in Drive, engine dies. Wait 1 minute. Car starts again, appears normal, but dies again after putting transmission back into drive. Car towed to dealer.
At dealer, car would not start at all. Dealer found the starting battery failed the performance test and replaced the battery under warranty. I think this is probably unrelated.
Dealer's has had the car for 3 days now attempting to reproduce the issue. It continues to behave normally since replacing the battery. Planning to speak to the VW rep tomorrow.
Anyone else had a MK7 TDI spontaneously die like this and leave no codes?
Jim
The car has spontaneously died while driving 5 times in the past 1.8 years. The first couple times, I thought it was just a fluke, but the 3rd, 4th, and now 5th time I've taken it to the dealer.
Behavior: Driving steadily along with no issues. Suddenly the engine stops running. Cost to side of road. Car is still "on", but engine is not running. Glow plug indicator is on. Pressing the brake pedal and the start button, the car cranks quickly, but will not start even after 20 seconds of cranking. Foot off brake and push the "start" button so car is completely off. Depress brake and then the start button again and car starts immediately as if there were no issue.
No fault codes are set when this happens.
Repeat this behavior for failures 2, 3, and 4 over a period of about a year. Months and thousands of miles go by between occurrences. Dealer could find no issue after 3rd time. Dealer (at VW recommendation) re-downloaded the ECU firmware (same version) to see if that would remedy the issue.
5th occurrence happened 2-16-19 at highway speed and car coasted to side of freeway. After turning car off, the car started again immediately. Upon putting car in Drive, engine dies. Wait 1 minute. Car starts again, appears normal, but dies again after putting transmission back into drive. Car towed to dealer.
At dealer, car would not start at all. Dealer found the starting battery failed the performance test and replaced the battery under warranty. I think this is probably unrelated.
Dealer's has had the car for 3 days now attempting to reproduce the issue. It continues to behave normally since replacing the battery. Planning to speak to the VW rep tomorrow.
Anyone else had a MK7 TDI spontaneously die like this and leave no codes?
Jim