Cross post from VwVortex.com - perhaps some of you would be able to shed some light on this:
All:
You all have been a very valuable resource to me, so I'm hoping everyone's combined wisdom here at put me at some ease. Let me explain the events of today, and perhaps someone can suggest how bad this problem is.
I started the car outside this morning. It was cold, about 7 or 8 degrees or so. The engine was therefore noticably cold and a tiny bit sluggish. I backed out onto the street so my wife could back her car out of the garage. She backs out, leaves, and I pull into the garage and shut the car off. No noticable problems at this stage - no indicator lights. I get out and right before I get into the house, I notice the smell of fuel in the garage and attribute this to my wife idling her car for a few seconds before she backed out. Maybe I was wrong??
Anyway, the car sits all day and about 4:30 I start it up in the garage again -- 17 degrees on the display. The engine, again, shakes sluggish a bit so I step on the accelerator feeding a little more fuel into it. After a second or two the MIL light starts flashing and I shut the car off immediately. This had happened once before and I figured it was because the car was really really cold and the idle wasnt right yet. So I start it back up, and it flashes a few more times, then stays on solid. The idle, by this point, is just as how it always is. There's no lack of power to the car and giving it some gas rev's it just like it always has. (No more fuel smell in the garage by the way). Anyway, so I back out of the driveway expecting it to shut off, and it doesn't. I had to run to the post office (about 3 miles away) so I ran there and back and in the process called up a dealer and he said it was one of two things:
* Coil pack problem (but I thought my V6+4Mo didn't have coil packs or some such thing. I called VWoA when I heard about the recall and they said it didnt apply to me).
* Misfiring (whatever that means).
Anyway, so he said that the indicator would clear itself after 20 starts of the car IF the problem didn't exist anymore. I've stopped and started the car several times and the MIL light still stays on solid (never flashing). I've got my appointment for my 65k mile maintenance on Wednesday so I'm going to have him look at it then, but I guess my questions are as follows:
* I'm out of warranty, from what I've read about this issue it could be a leaky hose, all the way to a messed up catalytic converter. Any speculation as to the problem?
* Could it just be the cold? I mean, is it possible the timeout for the engine to come to a good idle was exceeded because of the cold and as such the MIL came on?
* Will this indicator indeed clear itself automatically? If so, what will make it clear? Is that 20 starts thing accurate?
* Most importantly, is this thing safe to drive? I have a 50 mile commute each way into work and from everything I can tell, the car runs just fine now.
I think that's it. Help!
All:
You all have been a very valuable resource to me, so I'm hoping everyone's combined wisdom here at put me at some ease. Let me explain the events of today, and perhaps someone can suggest how bad this problem is.
I started the car outside this morning. It was cold, about 7 or 8 degrees or so. The engine was therefore noticably cold and a tiny bit sluggish. I backed out onto the street so my wife could back her car out of the garage. She backs out, leaves, and I pull into the garage and shut the car off. No noticable problems at this stage - no indicator lights. I get out and right before I get into the house, I notice the smell of fuel in the garage and attribute this to my wife idling her car for a few seconds before she backed out. Maybe I was wrong??
Anyway, the car sits all day and about 4:30 I start it up in the garage again -- 17 degrees on the display. The engine, again, shakes sluggish a bit so I step on the accelerator feeding a little more fuel into it. After a second or two the MIL light starts flashing and I shut the car off immediately. This had happened once before and I figured it was because the car was really really cold and the idle wasnt right yet. So I start it back up, and it flashes a few more times, then stays on solid. The idle, by this point, is just as how it always is. There's no lack of power to the car and giving it some gas rev's it just like it always has. (No more fuel smell in the garage by the way). Anyway, so I back out of the driveway expecting it to shut off, and it doesn't. I had to run to the post office (about 3 miles away) so I ran there and back and in the process called up a dealer and he said it was one of two things:
* Coil pack problem (but I thought my V6+4Mo didn't have coil packs or some such thing. I called VWoA when I heard about the recall and they said it didnt apply to me).
* Misfiring (whatever that means).
Anyway, so he said that the indicator would clear itself after 20 starts of the car IF the problem didn't exist anymore. I've stopped and started the car several times and the MIL light still stays on solid (never flashing). I've got my appointment for my 65k mile maintenance on Wednesday so I'm going to have him look at it then, but I guess my questions are as follows:
* I'm out of warranty, from what I've read about this issue it could be a leaky hose, all the way to a messed up catalytic converter. Any speculation as to the problem?
* Could it just be the cold? I mean, is it possible the timeout for the engine to come to a good idle was exceeded because of the cold and as such the MIL came on?
* Will this indicator indeed clear itself automatically? If so, what will make it clear? Is that 20 starts thing accurate?
* Most importantly, is this thing safe to drive? I have a 50 mile commute each way into work and from everything I can tell, the car runs just fine now.
I think that's it. Help!
