Unknown electrical issue (immobilizer/start stop?)

[Stern]

Hello,

I'm currently having a problem with me 2011 1.6 Diesel DSG Golf Plus. After being parked outside the cinema for 3 hours in the cold, we come out and drive off. It feels like the car is hiccuping every minute or so, power goes down but comes back straight away.

I drive her home, then make my own way but the problem gets worse. Every time the car hiccups I hear a "click" under the steering column. I stop along the way and it clicks while stopped and the engine turns off. I can start again no problem but unless I drive off, the next clicks turns it off again. Clicking frequency increases to the point of almost being unable to accelerate as the power never comes back before the next click, but it's so sporadic I do make it home. Seems to happen more when accelerating than when coasting.

Drive to the VW dealership in the morning and so far they haven't been able to come up with anything concrete. They just called me and said that it looks like there "might" be an electrical issue with the clocks (meaning the rev counter and so on). He tells me the rev counter doesn't fall properly all the way and also "jitters". They tried plugging in some other clocks and they worked fine, so they want me to buy a new set of clocks from VW and pay them to install them (€1000), but can't even guarantee this will fix the issue. Before this, the guy said it seemed like the relay that's clicking is being activated by the start/stop system, but they went so far as to disconnecting that and it's still happening.

So my question now, before I go back to them and confirm or not, is has anyone run into an issue like this before? Even if not - any ideas at all? They guy seems to be very unsure every time he calls me so I have no confidence that after I've sunk €1000 into it (and the clocks can't be uncoded so I can't get that money back either, apparently), that I will then be able to drive off without another issue.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Stern]

To help anyone else with this issue, the troubleshooting is ongoing. The replacement clocks, as I feared didn't fix the issue (although the "jittering" rev counter, which I'd never noticed myself before, is apparently no longer doing that, so yay ofr €1000 for fixing nothing). This has, according to the service rep, lead them on to check the sensors and they've discovered that the engine speed sensor was damaged, there were metal shavings/filings on/around it and to investigate where those are from they'd have to remove the gearbox. They said taking the sensor out fixed the issue but it would mean the engine isn't running very well and be "lumpy" whatever that means. So more updates to follow.

My question to anyone here: Engine Speed Sensor - would could damage that sensor without showing a fault? And is it really necessary to remove the gearbox to fix it?

[Stern]

Just to tie this up:

They removed the gearbox and found that a piece of the gearbox had broken off and was smashing around inside causing damage and also damaging the sensor, which was causing the stop/start system to trigger and cut out. Looks like the whole idea with the clocks is something I'm going to have to swallow but they replaced the part for free although I did have to cough up for most of the labour. In total I was short €1350 plus a painful 3-week car hire.

Hope this can help someone! If engine cutting out and it's not related to the immobiliser - check the engine speed sensor!

[FLAPPERJACK76]

Nice to see an ending. No the gearbox does not need to be removed to replace the crank speed sensor. ...but in your case then yes it did to remove whatever peice of metal object had damaged it. Weird one but have seen same issue on a 1.6 tdi common rail Skoda Octavia.

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