Author Topic: Looking into buying a 2003 Golf TDI - won't start after short over temp  (Read 4566 times)

December 03, 2016, 12:27:35 pm

SR Heer

  • Junior

  • Offline
  • **

  • 199
I am looking into buying a nice 2003 Golf TDI - auto - with 237,000 miles - turns over but won't start - here is what the owner says

"temp started rising so I turned on heater and went down pretty quick I turned the heater off and then it went to red and cut off"

now I know there is a reason why it overheated - usually with diesel its is what - head gasket or what else might cause overheat with TDI - TDIs usually run very efficiently and cool compared to NAs and TDs -

So to find out what caused it to initially rise in temps will be critical to repair - also I was thinking that the ECU has a protection circuit that if motor reaches a certain temp it shuts it down - now how could I reset this? I do have VAG-COM but to read faults if I am not mistaken the motor has to be running first before it will boot program - so is there a way to reset or bypass temp protection circuit and allow eng to run to possibly look at recorded faults?

Any suggestions as far as to what to check and how to go about troubleshooting? Thanks
« Last Edit: December 03, 2016, 12:41:51 pm by SR Heer »


97 Passat 1Z, 98 Jetta AHU, 91 Jetta AAZ TD, and 81 Rabbit Pickup

Reply #1December 05, 2016, 06:40:46 pm

theman53

  • Global Moderator
  • Veteran

  • Offline
  • ****

  • 7837
  • Personal Text
    Holmes County Ohio - North Central Ohio
Re: Looking into buying a 2003 Golf TDI - won't start after short over temp
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2016, 06:40:46 pm »
The engine only has to run for certain functions of Vagcom. Most just the key has to be on

Reply #2December 09, 2016, 01:08:42 pm

vanbcguy

  • Administrator
  • Veteran

  • Offline
  • *****

  • 2831
  • Personal Text
    Vancouver, BC
Re: Looking into buying a 2003 Golf TDI - won't start after short over temp
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2016, 01:08:42 pm »
There's no automatic shutoff / protection circuit in the ECU. It'll let the engine melt in to a pile of slag quite happily. If it shut down on its own something stopped working mechanically.

Sent from my XT1097 using Tapatalk

Bryn

1994 Jetta - AHU M-TDI - Jezebel Jetta
2004 Jetta Wagon - 1.8T - Blitzen