[edwardkasica]

The what: bought a 03 GLX 4 Motion with tiptronic auto. car was at an salvage auction for 4 months so the battery is completely dead, before it died they uploaded a pic of the cluster in the on position.

. yes the trip shows DEF. the car had both pass side windows open, but i could not detect any water intrusion although i cannot tell if was dried out. original salvage pics show closed windows, so they were not open for the entire four months. i believe that the car may have gone to auction because of this issue, one of the clues is that on the car fax the mileage jumped from 127k to 173k in 11 months. i think they could not read the odometer and threw in a number.


I tried to jump with thick cables and good battery, motor turned slow so i figured put a charge overnight, battery seems pretty shot. wont hold any charge


When i did try jump starting it the immo light was flashing. Have one master key/remote. remote did not work, dont know if it is a bad remote battery or the car causing this, but i will get to that later.

My plan is to install a fresh battery and do a capacitive disharge. is there anything else like certain fuses or relays i should check? waiting for the rain to stop 2 days now and will have a shot today later.

She is a good looking car with no rust, look not to have been abused but also looks like the T belt may have never been done because the S belt look original, but all this is another day and another 300 in parts. LOL

 

[scotts13]

At this point you really can't tell anything at all, other than the car was at auction for a reason, and there's something wonky in the cluster. (Temp pinned - really?). Fresh battery and capacitive reset sounds right assuming you don't have an appropriate scan tool. See what happens.

Did I mention you're not going to get anywhere without a scan tool? You need to be able to query the computer and find out what's achin' it.

 

[edwardkasica]

i know the car is a "cat in a bag", i just dont want to do something that will screw things up while trying to breathe life into it. temp and fuel needles moved back and forth when i keyed it on and then they pinned to the right like in their pic. i am in the process of looking at ebay for a vag-com scanner, probably wont go with the chinese next month scanner. looking at the laptop software version too.

 

[scotts13]

I can't think of anything not to do, other than engage in utter stupidity. Since you've already cranked it, it may be superfluous, but I'd have eyeballed the timing belt before anything else. It'll be interesting to find out if the immobilizer light is because the key isn't right, or the cluster is f*cked. Generally, when that light comes on, it's a mismatched key. In that case, the engine will start, but die within a few seconds.

Note that the immobilizer chip doesn't require battery power. As far as the remote battery, there should be a light on the fob that flashes when you push the buttons.

 

[Tomvw]

I suggest you start with VCDS-Lite Unregistered FREE, you can upgrade if you need.

VCDS-Lite Unregistered will read all codes in all your scannable modules, and perform some tests and procedures.
You will need the registered version to do a TBA etc.
For more info on functions Etc.

You can buy an interface like this OBD2 VAG-COM USB Cable Scanner Audi VW, on eBay for about $10.00.
NOTE: I do not recommend this or any particular one, but most seem to work well.
I suggest you DO NOT use the supplied software, many of these are old and restricted and have Viruses.
(This connects to the OBDII Port in the car, and to a PC or Laptop Etc.)
Then download the VCDS-Lite, FREE software (or registered software for $99). From:

Ross-Tech: VCDS-Lite
They also supply interface cables with full versions of VCDS from $249.00.

 

[edwardkasica]

I can't think of anything not to do, other than engage in utter stupidity. Since you've already cranked it, it may be superfluous, but I'd have eyeballed the timing belt before anything else. It'll be interesting to find out if the immobilizer light is because the key isn't right, or the cluster is f*cked. Generally, when that light comes on, it's a mismatched key. In that case, the engine will start, but die within a few seconds.

Note that the immobilizer chip doesn't require battery power. As far as the remote battery, there should be a light on the fob that flashes when you push the buttons.

as far as giving it a jump start, i figured that the car was just dead, like any car i have revived i gave it the standard try before reading about the cluster controlling the immo system ( great engineering feat). i will look at the the T belt but i figure if it was blown the car would probably have valve damage anyway, so it would be no loss. From what i read the cluster could be shot, i doubt the key is mismatched unless someone changed the cluster. waiting for the Tstorm to pass and will get the new battery installed.

 

[edwardkasica]

I suggest you start with VCDS-Lite Unregistered FREE, you can upgrade if you need.

VCDS-Lite Unregistered will read all codes in all your scannable modules, and perform some tests and procedures.
You will need the registered version to do a TBA etc.
For more info on functions Etc.

You can buy an interface like this OBD2 VAG-COM USB Cable Scanner Audi VW, on eBay for about $10.00.
NOTE: I do not recommend this or any particular one, but most seem to work well.
I suggest you DO NOT use the supplied software, many of these are old and restricted and have Viruses.
(This connects to the OBDII Port in the car, and to a PC or Laptop Etc.)
Then download the VCDS-Lite, FREE software (or registered software for $99). From:

Ross-Tech: VCDS-Lite
They also supply interface cables with full versions of VCDS from $249.00.

looks like i will get the cable and will download it tomy android that way i can scan the car away from home if i need to, going to ebay now, thanks, Ed

 

[vbora01]

Appears to be a bricked cluster. On an immobilizer enabled car, it won't start without interaction with the cluster which stores the Immo information. You might want to link up with a user here named: keithwbloom. He's successfully unbricked a dead cluster.

- Thread from Google search: Jetta starts then dies? cluster 000000 dEF? - TDIClub Forums
- Passatworld thread: http://www.passatworld.com/forums/4...iscussion/337784-def-displaying-odometer.html
- More information concerning VW/Audi immo systems, found in a MKIV Jetta/Golf forum but the system doesn't vary greatly: http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?3568883
- Could be a possibility previous owner replaced cluster with one from another car, or dealer did, hoping to fix whatever issue and it didn't work? Just a shot in the dark guess.

At 4 months of non use, the battery might be toast. Doesn't seem like lead acid batteries fare well with long sitting periods.