[chuloloco]

I have a 99 1.8t auto with 151,000 miles on it. I'm not a very knowledgeable on Passats or cars in general pertaining to their mechanics and electrical components. Feel free to correct me at anytime.

I got the tranny replaced and I heard from a someone that VW's need to have the ECU or something reset whenever you get a new transmission. My mechanic didn't know anything about that so I took it to a German auto shop. The rep told me this was true, but he was hesitant to say "yes", almost as though he hadn't heard of this before. He came back 5 mins later telling me his tool or machine that they use to reset the tranny couldn't even recognize that I had an ECU and that the water on the driver floorboard had caused the damage to the ECU. Water has been coming in on the driver floorboard (not horrible) and behind the drivers seat floorboard (kinda bad at times). The car still runs, but it shifts all retarded. Its better in Tip mode, but when I shift to 2nd it shifts again by itself a couple seconds later almost like there's a 2.5 gear or something. The gear indicator still stays on 2nd though.

I've tried to drive the car as minimally as possible and have driven it with the new tranny for about 300 miles in the month since putting it in.

Ok, so here are my questions:

1. Do new trannys in VW's need to be reset? If so, what actually must be reset? How bad is it for the car to run without the ECU being reset?

2. I've read different things about the ECU and CCM locations. Are they in fact located under the driver's floorboard? Are there 2 ECU's, one in the engine bay and one on the drivers floor?

3. What has been peoples experience with water entry? Specifically, damage to the ECU, CCM, wires, rust, etc?

4. Is the carpet on the driver floorboard glued down? I'd like to get my hands on both the ECU and CCM and see if I can dry them out and also to see what damage the water has done underneath the carpet. I removed the footrest and other plastic pieces and tugged on the carpet pretty hard and tried to pry it off with a flathead screwdriver to no avail. I can't believe that the minimal amount of water froze the carpet to the body of the car. I even put a heater in my car for 2hrs and I still didn't make any progress.

5. A little side-note, the German auto shop rep also told me that another customer had the same water damaged ECU problem with his A4 and that when he reported it to his insurance that they totaled the car. Anybody experience this with their insurance company as well?

Thanks for any help!

 

[jti306]

1. Don't know

2. There is the ECU (Engine Control Unit) in the engine bay next to the brake fluid reservoir, then the CCM (Comfort Convenience Module) is located under the driver side floorboard.

3. Water entry is typically caused by the sunroof drains being clogged. As for the electronics, Water + electronics = bad (unless waterproofed).....This can cause the CCM to fail from water damage, or from faulty wires....

4. The carpet should be able to be pulled up quited easily, I did it in my passat after years of abuse by my nephews (ie spilled drinks, melted candy bars, etc)

5. A ECU or CCM from a dealership will cost allot of money plus labor....This may be the reason why the insurance company totaled the car, though this has never happened to me....More worthwhile to buy one used and install it yourself

Good Luck

 

[scotts13]

1. Not that I know of, but see below.
2. There are two computers under the carpet, including the Transmission Control Module. The ECU is under the hood.
3. Water ingress and subsequent damage is a serious and ongoing problem in the B5/B5.5 Passat.
4. I don't think so, but I haven't taken it up myself.
5. I've heard that, but find it hard to believe. It's an expensive part, but not THAT expensive. I think they're confusing water ingress with water immersion (flood damage) which WILL usually total any car.

 

[vwb5t]

also check under the battery, water tends to backup there if the drains are clogged and come into the cabin through holes in the firewall.

 

[chuloloco]

I just bought a Check Engine light tool and this code came up:

Standard DTCs (ISO 15031-6/SAE J2012): P0501 Vehicle Speed Sensor "A" Range/Performance

I read the description on 2 sites: http://www.obd-codes.com/p0501 and http://www.engine-light-help.com/speed-sensor.html
Basically what I got from reading this is that since the water got in my car it messed up a wire or connector that my Vehicle Speed Sensor (VSS) is connected to. This resulted in my weird auto shifting troubles. To fix it I need to check the wires and connectors and all that jazz.

Has anyone here had issues with the VSS? What was your experience?

 

[chuloloco]

BUMP for the question above