[MCoyle101]

My Touareg has been a prime example of a great German machine. I’ve owned it almost five years and it’s needed nothing but tires, batteries, generator, and oil changes. That is until my driver side air bag blew out one day. It sat for months until I repaired. When I went to put it in my shop it had dead batteries. I jumped it and it sounded awful, strange growl and no response from accelerator pedal. I pulled in the shop and replaced the air bag along with the upper control arm. Once finished, I had trickled charged my truck batteries back to life. When started it made the same crazy sounds etc. I grabbed my schwabben and got busy looking at codes and clearing them etc.
I noticed I had glow plug lights flashing,
My ride height was flashing due to needing calibration which I corrected( this light went out)
Traction control light was on, which went off when I drove the truck straight for 50’ forwards and backwards.
The truck began to sound normal when I cleared some codes regarding turbo actuators.
Now my truck sounds normal without any CEL’s, that is until I turn it off and it starts all over again! I attempted to limp it 1/8mile across the field to my neighbors shop for assistance and it just lost power to the point that I put it in low range to move at a snails pace. Eventually it died and wouldn’t restart, cranks fine but not start. My neighbor pulled me home and I purchased new interstate batteries and installed. Before starting, I took my schwabben and cleared as many codes as I could. I noticed 15 relay no ground to the fuel pumps, glow plugs and all sorts of things. When cranking, it sounded out of fuel, so these Codes made sense. When I attempted to enter engine 11 and clear codes on that ecm, it couldn’t communicate or clear codes on this ecm. Can anyone help to point me in the correct direction??? I really appreciate anyone’s input.
best regards,
Marcus Coyle

 

[MCoyle101]

Start by getting VCDS and posting a full scan.
I'm not familiar with your "schwabben" or what it can do, but if you can extract whatever codes, post them up with as much details as possible.

It’s a poor man’s code reader for VW’s/Audi’s, am not sure if I can post a full scan but I certainly can post the codes I’m getting. Thanks for your help.
Marcus

 

[MCoyle101]

Anything you post will be helpful... even if it's just pics of whatever the scanner shows you as codes\info\freze frame....
Without that, we have nothing.
Also post any details on known condition\issues\recent repairs leading up to this no start thing.

Can your tool read battery condition? Make sure you have good changed up batteries.
Do you know how to use "live data" to monitor crank speed? Or fuel pressure? Or crank voltage?

I went down to my shop and grabbed the codes, expecting to easily find the definition for each code online. This doesn’t seem so, I’ll post the numbers but I’ll have to go back later and get the definition of each code to help others help me.
Engine 1
19793
17848
18315
19794
17909
16982
19791
16955
Will post images of the codes after lunch. My voltage was 12.39 which is a tad low, I’ll put it on a charger also. The vehicle was running a okay until it blew an air bag, and I let it sit for months without repairing. It ran great until the batteries went kaput, which is why I replaced them with new ones last week. I did a battery calibration last time I did batteries, this time I just replaced one battery at a time and didn’t recalibrate. I don’t believe this is my no start issue but don’t know anymore.
Marcus

 

[MCoyle101]

Are you saying that only the engine controller is reporting any faults?
Every other controller in the vehicle is happy and code free?

Lord no, I went thru the systems that will communicate! Some had codes like convertible top open and other silly codes that don’t apply to my issues. I’ve seen them before and it ran fine. Egr codes come up but it’s never cared in the five years I owned it. I’ll hook up the trickle charger and get a list of codes and definitions here shortly. I noticed on engine 1 when I cleared the codes with ignition on/ not running obviously. They returned instantly which isn’t normal.
Marcus

 

[MCoyle101]

So this tool of yours believes your Touareg is a rag top?
What could go wrong?

EGR codes would be under the engine controller, so that's not something that would be listed under a different controller.

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-schwabe...fessional-vw-audi-scan-tool/007868sch01b~scf/ here is the tool I’m using, a friend is bringing me his Ross tech after work. I expect to get more detailed information from that system. For the most part my tool has been okay until now, it’s done battery resets, height calibration and more. This maybe crazy, but I see where ecms can lose their information in the case of a very low battery in operation. When it would start and sound awful, I could spend 10 minutes clearing codes via various channels. Engine1 and Engine 11 were the systems that always fixed the running issues, glow plug lights, and the vehicle would return to normal. Since it lost power and died crawling in 4wL to my neighbors. It just cranks like a madman and doesn’t start.
Marcus

 

[MCoyle101]

According to that, it's a PRO tool and can do almost anything.... so do you know how to use it? Seems weird that with those kinds of claims\descriptions you are only able to clear codes and to get a code number without a description or freeze frame data.

It says it’s a pro tool, but I have my reservations. I have five years of experience with using this tool on my Touareg and a GLi I had. It may do those features on newer machines, but always says function or feature not supported on my 2004 Touareg. My friends have 2006/2008 Touaregs v10’s and it does more on their machines than my own. I’ll admit that I don’t understand all the abilities of this tool, but it definitely isn’t from lack of trying.
Marcus

 

[MCoyle101]

Check fuel pump relay B2... sounds like there's a fuel issue going on there!
View attachment 254421

10-4!

 

[MCoyle101]

.

Will check relay shortly

.

 

[MCoyle101]

Will check relay shortly

Cooling fan goes wide open when the key goes to the on position.

 

[MCoyle101]

Generally, if the injector driver is not getting proper ground, it will alert ECU, and it in turn will not energize the fuel pump.
Also, knowing german auto engineer's adoration for using individual/separate ground for each circuit, I wouldn't be surprised if ground(s) got somehow compromised.
When I got my Egg, I made sure I checked all the grounds I could find. I also, for good measure, added an extra ground strap from the alternator to the chassis.

Thanks for all the support and suggestions! I just had the wipers off when I did the airbag/upper control arm repair. I’ll pull it back apart and inspect the grounds for the ecms. I should have considered adding a ground when I upgraded my generator, what a great idea.
Marcus

 

[MCoyle101]

So we are just going to ignore that question?

Sorry, no fuel pump sounds!

 

[MCoyle101]

Ok, so replace the relay or jump the terminals temporary to see if that makes them work!

Roger that, I’ll do those things and report back.
Marcus

 

[MCoyle101]

So today I have jumped the relay and got the truck to start briefly and then die. It’s 35 degrees, I know the glow plugs are not working. I started it several times thinking the heat would build up and it would run. It didn’t, and I decided to take a break instead of cook my starter and new batteries. Side note, the motor sounded awful, I’ll say no turbo and perhaps only the driver side cylinders were firing. I say this because I didn’t hear any noise on the passenger side of the motor( sitting in the truck), it never idled over 10 seconds around 500 rpm. Hooking up Ross tech to see what I can undo or fix.
Marcus

 

[MCoyle101]

I cleaned the ground straps by the passenger front fender under the rain tray. No corrosion and no change afterwards. I say the fuel pumps are not kicking on even if I jump them. I loosened the screw that bleeds my fuel filter housing and no fuel comes out. I disconnected both batteries for ten minutes and connected them back. No change at all, disconnected the ecu at the passenger boot and no change what so ever. It try’s to start and the starter can spin this engine roughly 400rpms which almost sounds like it’s running, but it isn’t. Little to no smoke out the exhaust pipes. I’m gonna try to post the codes I have,
Marcus

 

[MCoyle101]

So do you have power coming to the relay socket that you're "jumping" or are you just assuming that you are doing something when you stick a wire into the two terminals? Also, which of the 4 terminals are you jumping?

Yes I have power, 87 to 30, I can hear what sounds like another relay clicking in the rear of my truck, but it’s not a pump.

 

[MCoyle101]

Yes I have power, 87 to 30, I can hear what sounds like another relay clicking in the rear of my truck, but it’s not a pump.

 

[MCoyle101]

Sorry about the rough pictures, it’s about the best I know how to do. The codes are identical to when I used my handheld scanner.
Marcus

 

[MCoyle101]

I'm not going to strain trying to look at your codes that way if you can't invest enough time to just copy\paste them in text format properly for easy reading\searching\etc.

Check the shared ground point under the driver's side rear bench for the two pumps.

Thanks, I will.

 

[MCoyle101]

Curious why your airbag blew and your upper control arm needed replacing... Did you get smacked in the front left corner?

No not at all, I was sitting still at my kids school waiting to pick them up. I thought the motor exploded it was so loud, like a bomb! Scared me and the guy walking past my front tire to death. I knew my upper control had play so I decided to do all I could afford while doing the repair. Upon inspecting the airbag, it was highly dry rotted! I’m rather scared to drive it even if it ran for fear the others will fail at speed! I do drive a five mile gravel loop often when it runs, I could suspect mini specs of gravel worked its way into a spot that caused it to give out. Marcus

 

[MCoyle101]

It sounds like some butchers fixed your Touareg prior to your ownership, and cut some corners during whatever they did. The systems in these are quite complex and usually rely on at least two different signals in order to fire an igniter... so the scenario you've described would be nearly impossible on a virgin, unbutchered system.

Did you have a pre-existing airbag fault\light on your cluster prior to this anomaly?

My truck is in remarkable condition other than the driver seat. I am the second owner of this truck, purchased from Orange Co, CA and serviced its whole life at Orange Co, Audi/VW until now. No reports of accidents, No lights or issues with air bags until the day it blew. It’s been down ever since. I’m trying to get a log today that you all can read. I noticed now that I have the spare and such out of the trunk, when starting it sounds like a speaker is popping Once in the back. The radio is off by the way, and I don’t believe it’s a speaker popping. If I can get a friend to come over and turn the key, I’ll try to pin point this sound and see how connected it is to my problems.
Marcus