Issue with my beetle starting but stalling

[Bugrnot]

I am new to all of this so excuse my ignorance, I am coming from a truck background so this is all new to me.

The current issue I have is that yesterday I left my lights on and drained my battery dead. Tonight after jumping the battery from my truck the car won't start now and stay running. It starts and then stalls out and it ran perfectly fine everywhere I went yesterday. I also don't have any readout on my odometer. Any help on where to begin looking would be greatly appreciated because I don't even know where to begin.

Thanks!

 

[Seatman]

Something to do with power to the clocks maybe, the immobiliser is in the clocks and ecu so if the clocks aren't powering up it's probably the immo stopping the car from staying running. I would take the battery off and give it a proper charge then try it again. It may be that it's just a low power thing.

 

[jcrews]

Disconnect the battery for a moment and try again. The immobilizer can go out to lunch in some unusual conditions. If that doesn't work, try another key. Notice the car/key symbol on the cluster. It will flash if authorization fails.

 

[Lightflyer1]

If you drained the battery, remove it and recharge it completely. It isn't good to use the alternator as a charger when you have a flat battery. It does well maintaining a charge but is hard on it to completely recharge one when it is dead.

 

[Bugrnot]

Thanks guys! I will try that stuff tonight and see if it works. I am going to go through the fuse panels as well just in case. I am so used to the dual battery set up in the Dodge truck that I have that it just didn't compute for me I guess. Trying to learn to do things right on the new beetle so that it will continue to give me many years of good service like all of my other diesels have. Thanks for the quick info hope I can help some of you out in the future as well. Will let you know what I find out.

 

[DeafBug]

And be prepared to replace the batter before winter since you will have a hell of a hard time starting if the battery is drained once. It happened to me and the battery was like a year and half old. It got drained once in the summer and I charged it up. Everything was back to normal.

Come winter with the wait time for the glow plugs, I had a lot of starting problems but I used the FrostHeater, it is reduced. Can't used the FrostHeater if you are in a large parking lot all day. So I ended up putting a new battery in.

I learned that you technically shorten the life of the battery by approximately half if it got drained just once. Sucks but lesson learned.

 

[Bugrnot]

Ok. So the problem still exists. The car will turn over and fire, then within less than a second it dies. I have disconnected the battery reconnected it and that didn't work, pulled the battery and charged it slow for 24 hours that didn't work, went and got a brand new optima battery this morning, installed it and that didn't work, changed out the batteries on both key sets, that didn't work...went through the fuse panel had one fuse popped (was for the windows and door locks) replaced that still nothing. Any other suggestions? Thanks I appreciate the help.

 

[Seatman]

Oh well, time to get stuck in I suppose

http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/multi/immobilizer-VW-Audi-FAQ.htm

 

[jcrews]

You are getting the immobilizer blocked indicator, yes? Have you tried another authorized key?

 

[Bugrnot]

Well it is dealership time. I tried both keys and it still will not run. I call the local dealer here and they will do the immobilizer unlock for $55 just have to bring them the car and both keys. Hopefully it is just than and not anything more. I have to get a car dolly tonight and get it down there so they can get it done hopefully quickly. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. This has been a new one for me, when this happened to my truck I could fix it on my own without the dealer. I see that the learning curve for me here will be rather steep.

 

[Bugrnot]

Well boys....the $55 reset for the immobilizer turned into a shorted out instrument cluster which is running me $975 including their work time on it. Thanks for the help though in getting me started, and Julia at the dealership gave me a list of things to look at and check as they may be going eventually. I can do that stuff myself as time and funds come along. Looking forward to lurking on the boards!