greengeeker
Vendor
About a month ago I was leaving the in-law's place and the Jetta's check engine light came on and stayed on - meaning I had an engine issue. I nervously drove for 3 days trying to see if I could hear anything abnormal coming from under the hood before I could get a hold of a VAGCOM (thank you Tom!) to pull my fault codes. When I finally plugged it in it displayed two codes:
17058 - Cylinder 4 Glow Plug Circuit (Q13):
Electrical Fault
P0674 - 35 - 20 - - - Intermittent
17911 - Load Signal From Alternator Term. DF:
Implausible Signal
P1503 - 35 - 10 - - - Intermittent
Having read Wingnut's Glow Plugs 101, I knew how to proceed with the glow plug fault but was stumped as to what the second code meant. So being a good little TDIclub member I did a thorough search and came up with little on how to fix the code. I do have to give credit to Whitedog for finding information on the fault on a Seat site and posting it up here. Since we don't already have anything on the topic, I figured I would get this out there. The code, by the way, does not display a CEL (in my case the glow plug fault did that) but gets stored nonetheless. My car seemed to store the code everyday - I cleared the code at night, commuted the next day and checked the codes when I got home with it displaying the 17911. I repeated this 3 times, all having the same results.
The problem: On the front side of the engine is a harness that runs from the alternator, voltage regulator, and A/C compressor (if so equipped) to the main harness underneath the battery box. Apparently, VW decided to make this harness ~1" shorter than it should be which becomes an issue at a four pin connector (2 pin in the case of no A/C) located on the starter.
There are five wires in the harness:
1) Large red power wire from the alternator. Goes to the fuse panel on the top of the battery.
2) Green and black wire from A/C compressor (actually for A/C compressor clutch). Goes through third pin on the 4 pin connector to ?
3) Brown and black wire from A/C compressor (actually for A/C compressor clutch). Goes through fourth pin on the 4 pin connector to ?
4) VERY small brown and red wire from the voltage regulator. Goes through the first pin on the 4 pin connector on its way to the ECM.
5) VERY small blue wire from the voltage regulator. Goes through the second pin on the 4 pin connector on its way to the ECM and Generator indicator light in the dash, as well as the warning chime.
On my car, #4 was completely disconnected; #5, and #3 were also well on their way (the sheathing had cracked and the wires were frayed).
My first step was to pull the harness from the car to see if I could salvage the connector. To do this the battery, battery box, air cleaner and engine cover came out to gain access to the various points of attachment. Once out, I noticed that all the damage to the wires was less than 1/4" from the connector making soldering somewhat difficult. I came up with 2 ways to fix the short, broken harness: 1) pull connector apart, lengthen wires, rebuild connector 2) remove connector, lengthen wires, permanently attach the harness. I decided to go with the latter option since I kinda mangled the connector trying to pull it apart (I don't think they are meant to be serviced) and also because I didn't think the connector was necessary.
So out came the soldering iron, wire strippers, heat shrink, 16ga wire, and wire loom. The whole process was pretty painless, that is if you don't count the couple of times I burned myself and the 10deg parking lot that I had to do the fix in
. I buttoned everything back up and fired it up and took it for a spin, keeping my eye on the CEL to see if anything had been screwed up - nothing. When I got back I ran a VAGCOM to see if the 17911 was stored again and....success, no more implausible signal.
I look forward to see if this fixes my other problem of frequently blowing taillights, headlights and brake lights. My guess is that the completely disconnected wire was touching one of the other exposed wires in the connector...possibly the ground (?) for the A/C.
Anyway, I hope this helps shed some light on the 17911 fault code. Happy TDI'ing.
17058 - Cylinder 4 Glow Plug Circuit (Q13):
Electrical Fault
P0674 - 35 - 20 - - - Intermittent
17911 - Load Signal From Alternator Term. DF:
Implausible Signal
P1503 - 35 - 10 - - - Intermittent
Having read Wingnut's Glow Plugs 101, I knew how to proceed with the glow plug fault but was stumped as to what the second code meant. So being a good little TDIclub member I did a thorough search and came up with little on how to fix the code. I do have to give credit to Whitedog for finding information on the fault on a Seat site and posting it up here. Since we don't already have anything on the topic, I figured I would get this out there. The code, by the way, does not display a CEL (in my case the glow plug fault did that) but gets stored nonetheless. My car seemed to store the code everyday - I cleared the code at night, commuted the next day and checked the codes when I got home with it displaying the 17911. I repeated this 3 times, all having the same results.
The problem: On the front side of the engine is a harness that runs from the alternator, voltage regulator, and A/C compressor (if so equipped) to the main harness underneath the battery box. Apparently, VW decided to make this harness ~1" shorter than it should be which becomes an issue at a four pin connector (2 pin in the case of no A/C) located on the starter.
There are five wires in the harness:
1) Large red power wire from the alternator. Goes to the fuse panel on the top of the battery.
2) Green and black wire from A/C compressor (actually for A/C compressor clutch). Goes through third pin on the 4 pin connector to ?
3) Brown and black wire from A/C compressor (actually for A/C compressor clutch). Goes through fourth pin on the 4 pin connector to ?
4) VERY small brown and red wire from the voltage regulator. Goes through the first pin on the 4 pin connector on its way to the ECM.
5) VERY small blue wire from the voltage regulator. Goes through the second pin on the 4 pin connector on its way to the ECM and Generator indicator light in the dash, as well as the warning chime.
On my car, #4 was completely disconnected; #5, and #3 were also well on their way (the sheathing had cracked and the wires were frayed).
My first step was to pull the harness from the car to see if I could salvage the connector. To do this the battery, battery box, air cleaner and engine cover came out to gain access to the various points of attachment. Once out, I noticed that all the damage to the wires was less than 1/4" from the connector making soldering somewhat difficult. I came up with 2 ways to fix the short, broken harness: 1) pull connector apart, lengthen wires, rebuild connector 2) remove connector, lengthen wires, permanently attach the harness. I decided to go with the latter option since I kinda mangled the connector trying to pull it apart (I don't think they are meant to be serviced) and also because I didn't think the connector was necessary.
So out came the soldering iron, wire strippers, heat shrink, 16ga wire, and wire loom. The whole process was pretty painless, that is if you don't count the couple of times I burned myself and the 10deg parking lot that I had to do the fix in
. I buttoned everything back up and fired it up and took it for a spin, keeping my eye on the CEL to see if anything had been screwed up - nothing. When I got back I ran a VAGCOM to see if the 17911 was stored again and....success, no more implausible signal. I look forward to see if this fixes my other problem of frequently blowing taillights, headlights and brake lights. My guess is that the completely disconnected wire was touching one of the other exposed wires in the connector...possibly the ground (?) for the A/C.
Anyway, I hope this helps shed some light on the 17911 fault code. Happy TDI'ing.
