[Fonzi]

Hello,

Recently for the past 6 months actually I've been having a weird problem with my Treg ever since it's been getting cold.

Every morning (or if the car sits for a while) it starts fine, but it starts at 12v and after a while I get the red STOP warning on the MFI and then a consumer electronics and ac off message. After a while of driving, or letting it sit, the volts go back up to 14v and everything is fine.

The other day, I usually let my car sit and warm up and get to 14 before taking off, I took off on a cold start. Driving down the road at night, it went from 12, to 10, to 8 and then the instrument cluster went out, a headlight went out, and I pulled over. Sat for maybe 15 seconds and it shot up to 14. Waaaht could this possibly be now? For some reason I almost linked this to when I was messing with ECU tuning, right after this started to happen. But its also been warming up here. It seems like on a day where its 70/80 out it starts up fine at 14. So confused.

 

[FSJ Guy]

Alternator could be going out. Or a bad belt tensioner? <shrug>

 

[T1 REX]

My '06 V8 starts at 12vdc and then a few seconds later goes up to 14vdc when the alternator kicks over. That's NORMAL. Now, that being said, when it is cold out (say 25F), the Touareg lags to start, but does. It will produce a Traction Control Fault Light and a few others. Once the voltage stabilizes, I shut the car off and then restart. All the lights go out. I need a new battery.

On a side note, my instrument cluster backlighting went out all of the sudden a few months ago. I think my headlight switch is shorting out.

 

[Fonzi]

I've pretty much ruled out it has to be the alternator. In the process of taking the alternator out, wow this is a tough one. Also, replaced the battery like 3 years ago when I bought the car, but it tests fine. WHY DID I BUY THIS CAR.