Hi Everyone. I have a 2008 Touareg2 , V8 with Executive Trim package. My vehicle has stranded me twice now with the same issue and I want to warn people about it. What you will experience is that without any warning, you can drive your vehicle to its destination, park it, lock it and return later, unlock it and it will not start. Regardless of a fully charged battery you will have all your accessories, lights, radio, etc, but your start button will not operate to turn over the motor and you cannot move your transmission out of park. Inserting the key into the ignition lock in the dash will not help either. You can try to jump the vehicle with battery cables, but it will not help. When this happened to me the first time, I had to have the vehicle towed in for service. The service was to "reset the ECU". As a precaution, at the time I replaced the battery as well as it was at about 35K miles ( service told me batteries are good for 50K miles). After that incident I read on the forum that this happened to others and the solution was to life the seat and remove the ground side cable from the battery then reconnect. So after that, I carried tools around required to perform the service.
So today, while in a parking lot after a college football game, the same thing happens again!! I was glad I had the socket wrench with me. I removed the floormat on the drivers side and lifted back the carpet. I was able to access the thick ground cable coming out of the battery box under the drivers seat. I removed the nut ( I think it was 12 mm) and isolated the cable from the connector. I waited a few seconds then reconnected it ( be careful there are sparks...) and fastened the bolt back tight. I replaced the plastic covers and carpet. I pressed the brake pedal down and then pressed the start button and the motor started right up!!
This advice is given, but you must take it at your own risk. I provide no warranties about this. All I know is it works on my vehicle and it prevented stranding me and giving me a another towing bill. Imagine this happening on a mountain top on a 4x4 trail ??? To all those who had have this issue ( or not yet) carry a socket wrench and metric sockets with you in truck to avoid this ridiculous problem. I plan to take the vehicle in for service and described what happened again. Perhaps it is a faulty ECU.
Happy Trails!
So today, while in a parking lot after a college football game, the same thing happens again!! I was glad I had the socket wrench with me. I removed the floormat on the drivers side and lifted back the carpet. I was able to access the thick ground cable coming out of the battery box under the drivers seat. I removed the nut ( I think it was 12 mm) and isolated the cable from the connector. I waited a few seconds then reconnected it ( be careful there are sparks...) and fastened the bolt back tight. I replaced the plastic covers and carpet. I pressed the brake pedal down and then pressed the start button and the motor started right up!!
This advice is given, but you must take it at your own risk. I provide no warranties about this. All I know is it works on my vehicle and it prevented stranding me and giving me a another towing bill. Imagine this happening on a mountain top on a 4x4 trail ??? To all those who had have this issue ( or not yet) carry a socket wrench and metric sockets with you in truck to avoid this ridiculous problem. I plan to take the vehicle in for service and described what happened again. Perhaps it is a faulty ECU.
Happy Trails!
