VW Passat - Error: ESP - Complete Loss of Power. Electrics Issue?

[ap87]

Hi all, so a bit of annoying problem started with my car today (’61 B7 Passat Sport 2.0 BM Estate).

Im working from home so car is used a few days a week for short journeys (I am smart charging once a month) but the car has sat for probably 3 or 4 days now doing nothing and this morning on what seems to be the coldest day ever I went outside and started her up, engine was running for a good 5 minutes or more whilst the heated windscreen and blowers were on but then as I put my foot down to drive off the drive, the ‘Error: ESP’ message came up on the MFD, the ABS light lit up yellow and the car completely cut out and lost power.

Silly me just thought it may have been a battery issue so restarted the car and drove off in hope it was a one off and something to do with the Baltic weather. However another 20 seconds down the road (at a roundabout, typical) the same happened again. I managed to start up again and get it to a safe place and left it as now it wasn’t going any further than a few yards without the error popping up and car just cutting out completely.

Thinking it may still be the battery, I went back home as luckily I had purchased a new one not so long ago (I was holding off fitting until the car was going to be used a bit more), admittedly it wasn’t fully charged but I checked it and I think it was around 12.4v so plenty enough, you’d think? Anyway, battery swapped over and issue still exists so I made use of my breakdown policy and got recovered back to home which was only a few minutes away. Didn’t want to be taking it to a garage with a blank cheque in hand straight away without having a look myself first as im quite handy and would like to try and fix myself. Im also in no rush to use the car anytime soon.

Having got it back home this is the way it plays out:

- Car will start at first push of the key, engine runs, all dash lights go out and all looks good, but within 10 seconds I see the DPF light quickly light up followed by the parking brake, the ESP error and the ESP/ABS light – all in yellow, not red, and all engine power is lost again.

- If I try to start the car again straight away, It wont turn over at all for another few minutes and then the same process happens

It certainly seems to be some electrical issue somewhere, just not sure where to start? Im taking the DPF light with a pinch of salt, along with the parking brake light as the brake works fine. Im also wondering if the EPS issue is also a red herring and that whatever electrical issue it is, is just causing random stuff to error?

Unfortunately I don’t own or have access to VCDS but I do have a Carista OBD device, read codes, cleared, started engine, read again and still getting a few that fall into the below.

- 01314 Engine Control Module (ECM) and shows under the ABS, Parking Brake, Power Steering, Central Electronics and CAN Network Gateway headings – once again not sure if this is just highlighting that these areas have errored rather than pointing to a specific issue?

- 68108 for both Driver and Front Passenger Door

Not sure how meaningful these are and if they are related:

- 12648480 – Parking/Steering Assist
- 13701376 – Heater + Air Conditioning
- 13639424 – Instrument Cluster
- 13639427 – Instrument Cluster
- 12648448 – Instrument Cluster
- 12658432 – Instrument Cluster

 

[gc123]

dont know if this is any use to you
Passat 2.0 TDI ECU Fault (ecutesting.com)

it states ecu is under windscreen and can suffer from poor water drainage , hence causing problems.

been a while since i worked on one so without seeing it its hard to diagnose. dont worry too much about other fault codes such as instruments as the whole system is can bus a fault in any unit will throw up loads of faults.

my first line of attack would probably be to access the ecu and if possible remove it and put it on a house radiator for a couple of hours. its possible its had water ingress, while your looking at it check where it fits and find out if there is a build up of crap /leafs etc in this cold weather its possible water has frozen in the drain pipes and cause it to overflow onto ecu.

again its a piece of string diagnosis without having the vehicle in front of me.

had a similar problem with a 2009 mondeo cutting out and throwing silly faults for about a month tracked the cutting out to a intermittent wire going to the ecu being broken and then when ecu was out which was under wheel arch , having removed it finding damp in it.

ended up removing the cover which had to use a hairdryer to heat up as was sealed with black sealer, found bottom corner of ecu black with water damage, used a fibre pen to clean the board up. ( at little in depth but i also saved the data from it my hobby for last 10 years) and put it back together with silicon sealer. car has been fine since.

it also was throwing up abs.power steering/auto trans/ecu and instrument cluster faults , before repairs. some days start fine and cut out after 10mins other days fine for a day .

hehe bought another ecu from a salvage yard and put my info into it incase it was needed evn checked it worked but decided to leave the old ecu on...been fine touch wood for 3 years...grrr now ive jinxed it .

 

[ap87]

dont know if this is any use to you
Passat 2.0 TDI ECU Fault (ecutesting.com)

it states ecu is under windscreen and can suffer from poor water drainage , hence causing problems.

been a while since i worked on one so without seeing it its hard to diagnose. dont worry too much about other fault codes such as instruments as the whole system is can bus a fault in any unit will throw up loads of faults.

my first line of attack would probably be to access the ecu and if possible remove it and put it on a house radiator for a couple of hours. its possible its had water ingress, while your looking at it check where it fits and find out if there is a build up of crap /leafs etc in this cold weather its possible water has frozen in the drain pipes and cause it to overflow onto ecu.

again its a piece of string diagnosis without having the vehicle in front of me.

had a similar problem with a 2009 mondeo cutting out and throwing silly faults for about a month tracked the cutting out to a intermittent wire going to the ecu being broken and then when ecu was out which was under wheel arch , having removed it finding damp in it.

ended up removing the cover which had to use a hairdryer to heat up as was sealed with black sealer, found bottom corner of ecu black with water damage, used a fibre pen to clean the board up. ( at little in depth but i also saved the data from it my hobby for last 10 years) and put it back together with silicon sealer. car has been fine since.

it also was throwing up abs.power steering/auto trans/ecu and instrument cluster faults , before repairs. some days start fine and cut out after 10mins other days fine for a day .

hehe bought another ecu from a salvage yard and put my info into it incase it was needed evn checked it worked but decided to leave the old ecu on...been fine touch wood for 3 years...grrr now ive jinxed it .

Thanks for the reply. I'm thinking exactly the same at the moment. I went to dig the ECU out earlier but could only get one of the wiper arms off. The other is currently sitting there soaking in WD40 so will give it another go tomorrow.

Im thinking its got to be snow/ice related as the last time I drove it it was absolutely fine, just hope that I can find some sort of water ingress to prove it off but at the same time hope its still salvageable, fingers crossed!

 

[ap87]

dont know if this is any use to you
Passat 2.0 TDI ECU Fault (ecutesting.com)

it states ecu is under windscreen and can suffer from poor water drainage , hence causing problems.

been a while since i worked on one so without seeing it its hard to diagnose. dont worry too much about other fault codes such as instruments as the whole system is can bus a fault in any unit will throw up loads of faults.

my first line of attack would probably be to access the ecu and if possible remove it and put it on a house radiator for a couple of hours. its possible its had water ingress, while your looking at it check where it fits and find out if there is a build up of crap /leafs etc in this cold weather its possible water has frozen in the drain pipes and cause it to overflow onto ecu.

again its a piece of string diagnosis without having the vehicle in front of me.

had a similar problem with a 2009 mondeo cutting out and throwing silly faults for about a month tracked the cutting out to a intermittent wire going to the ecu being broken and then when ecu was out which was under wheel arch , having removed it finding damp in it.

ended up removing the cover which had to use a hairdryer to heat up as was sealed with black sealer, found bottom corner of ecu black with water damage, used a fibre pen to clean the board up. ( at little in depth but i also saved the data from it my hobby for last 10 years) and put it back together with silicon sealer. car has been fine since.

it also was throwing up abs.power steering/auto trans/ecu and instrument cluster faults , before repairs. some days start fine and cut out after 10mins other days fine for a day .

hehe bought another ecu from a salvage yard and put my info into it incase it was needed evn checked it worked but decided to leave the old ecu on...been fine touch wood for 3 years...grrr now ive jinxed it .

Ok, so took ECU out today, managed to get the cover off after a bit of a struggle, PCB board looked nice and clean. Couldn't take it out to check the other side as it seemed stuck at 1 corner and didn't want to risk snapping it.

Put it back together and engine started fine and was running with no issues for well over an hour, previously the best it would manage was 5 minutes. Not took it for a drive yet so can't say the issue has gone but certainly seems better than it was

 

[gc123]

good to hear

please tell me you checked for blockages and that you used some additional sealant on the ecu as they are buggers for sealing , oh and dont make the common mistake of putting them in a plastic bag ...all that does is poach them when water gets inside

hoping it doesnt but if the problem comes back maybe some spray on water repellant on the connector or check wiring to plug for kinks etc easily checkable whilst running just wiggle the wiring and see if it stops or is able to restart , but hope its solved)))

used to have a old guy who worked for me would now go into the stage of but why did it have a fault .

once had a fault on a escort and we took the wiring out, with a view to checking it (underbonnet harness for engine ecu etc) next day .

bless his soul he took the harness home and spent most of the early hours stripping it back even to the point of removing the connectors from the plugs and labelling them so he could show me why it was faulty.

i had a spare anyway and replaced it but he was a cracker at that , miss him a lot but hey ho we know we getting older when we attend more funerals than weddings

 

[ap87]

good to hear

please tell me you checked for blockages and that you used some additional sealant on the ecu as they are buggers for sealing , oh and dont make the common mistake of putting them in a plastic bag ...all that does is poach them when water gets inside

hoping it doesnt but if the problem comes back maybe some spray on water repellant on the connector or check wiring to plug for kinks etc easily checkable whilst running just wiggle the wiring and see if it stops or is able to restart , but hope its solved)))

used to have a old guy who worked for me would now go into the stage of but why did it have a fault .

once had a fault on a escort and we took the wiring out, with a view to checking it (underbonnet harness for engine ecu etc) next day .

bless his soul he took the harness home and spent most of the early hours stripping it back even to the point of removing the connectors from the plugs and labelling them so he could show me why it was faulty.

i had a spare anyway and replaced it but he was a cracker at that , miss him a lot but hey ho we know we getting older when we attend more funerals than weddings

Yeah he sounded like a very useful guy!

The ECU is actually back out of the car for now, its in the spare room with the dehumidifer on just to make sure its 100% dry before i seal it back together. Planning to put a very small bead of extra silicone inside and then around the rim on the outside too.

Then first job tomorrow is clearing out the leaves and muck etc. from the area. Will check for any blockages but it looks to me like there are just 2 large holes at either end and the bodywork slopes down towards them slightly to drain any water. Must admit though didnt look around too much in there today as most time was spent on the ECU