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4K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  rolo01 
#1 ·
This happened to me after a drive down to New York City from Buffalo NY. 400 Miles is a long way but on a car that's been sufficiently broken in (1800 miles), there should be no problems. The coolant temperature gauge shorted and caused no end of problems. Apparently, this seems to be a rather common issue as my dealer has told me they've replaced several in the past 3 months or so.

The problem is basically this, when the coolant thermometer shorted, it kept reading that the engine was warm and would therefore attempt a warm start instead of a cold one. Since the engine is thinking that it is warm it would not deliver the kind of power needed to sufficiently fire the motor. This would cause the engine to chug while starting and after 2-3 attempts (which made me groan thinking about the strain it was putting on my engine and starter) it would fire. However, after it fires it would not be able to keep it's revs since it's "coasting" in terms of RPMs and would thereby idle-stall. This would make me hit the throttle to try and keep the engine alive. This would put enormous strain on the motor and the stall would be even more "damaging".

Seeing as I was 400 miles from my dealership, on Christmas Eve where NO local dealerships were open, I had no choice but to DRIVE the car 400 miles praying it would be a sensor issue. Luckily, for me, it was. This is NOT a good decision and made only with the educated guesses that I have accumulated by playing tuner boy with various other vehicles. My dealership fixed it within 5 days, though it would have been faster if not for the specialty order of the sensor from VW. They installed a new sensor and the fix did not cost me one penny.

If you are experiencing idle stalls, I would suggest you point your dealer's service technicians in that direction. I experienced several of these before having the sensor replaced and since, have not had a problem. (500 miles or so) This has definitely eroded my earlier confidence in the "New commitment to reliability" that VW has been heading towards but I will not pass judgement due to a simple sensor malfunction. I hope this has been helpful.
 
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