More Passat woes

[chapster]

Hi,

More problems with this Passat 1.9TDi 2001 (AVB engine).

My windows are always coated in lots of condensation. After reading posts about this being caused by water getting into the passenger footwell, I pushed hard on the carpet and found it's wet. Haven't lifted it yet. I see the fix for the version that has a lid on the pollen filter, but my car (B5.5?) has no cover, only the long plastic tray that fits under the scuttle panel along the length of the car's front. What's the likely culprit for the water ingress in this case (and fix?)

My climatronic not only goes completely black and dead for a second or two every now and then, but also blows hot and cold even when temperature is set to HI, so most of the time I'm freezing in the car. Using the VCDS cable and also the Climatronics inbuilt diagnostic codes, I get the same:

• 01274 airflow flap positioning motor V71 faulty
• 01299 Diagnostic internface for data bus (J533) 79-00

Any advice, and would this cause the unit to keep alternating between hot and cold air, whether in auto mode, manual mode, or windscreen mode? And the going dead of the whole unit while driving sometimes for a second or two?

I also went through all of the OBD type info and saw that the air-con is always turned off as the low pressure switch is active, so low gas.

Also it takes around 7 miles or 12 minutes of driving for heat to come through in the first place. Haynes claims the diesels have an auxilliary heater in front of the heater matrix. My VCDS Lite software shows this under HVAC: Group 10: Aux. Heater Request ON. Aux. Heater OFF. Coolant Temp 142 C. What coolant sensor is that reading from, because on the engine page it's showing coolant temperature as a more normal number? Why would the request be on, but aux heater be off?

Engine data is showing air intake temperature as 22.5 C when it was 1 C outside tonight when I did the readings.

I read on another site about re-initialising the flap motors in the Climatronic system but the option in VCDS Lite seems to be a full version only option? I tried what I read in a PDF online about causing the system to do a actuator test, holding 'recirc' and 'econ' buttons while turning ignition on, and holding them two seconds, but it just displays the fault codes.

I also have one rear headliner light not coming on at all, and the other glowing a very dull orange. Haynes says the light units pull out, but I've tried and they won't come out. Each one has two little black circles either side of the bulb cover which I assume is to do with the alarm air pressure sensors. How do these buggers come out?

Also, my new battery is either playing up, or being drained while the car is parked. Tonight it was slow to turn over and the dash lights and onboard computer screen blacked out like it did with the old tiny battery. Alternator output was about 14.2V I think when I checked a couple of weeks ago.

AND... when cold it is harder to start, taking a few revolutions to catch and sounds rough when it does catch and is a bit lumpy for a very short while. When it's warm, it starts instantly.

Another fault code stored was coolant temperature sensor (G2) unable to test currently, intermittent.

If anyone wants to buy this great car from me, please do!

[Doctle Odd]

I was considering buying a Passat this evening but under advice from a member on here and the wife pointing out I've had 7 Passats since 2000 and they all sucked I decided not to. Change the coolant temp sensor first it's cheap, it's easy to do and it will make a difference. Don't forget to clear the fault code afterwards

[smithy602179]

interior lights need some persuasion with a small screwdriver in the edge facing the front of car as it is held in with a spring . bulbs are replaceable from vw for a few quid

the temp sensor is about 32 quid from dealers dont use the ebay ones ( not worth the hassle) replace rubber o-ring as you do it and you may need a new clip to hold sensor in

as for aircon the motor V71 is located behind glove box . does it click or cycle when you turn it on

good luck

[Doctle Odd]

I have several spare clips for the coolant sensor, if you don't get a new one sods law says the old one will break, fly into orbit or drop to an inaccessible place on the engine.

interior lights need some persuasion with a small screwdriver in the edge facing the front of car as it is held in with a spring . bulbs are replaceable from vw for a few quid

the temp sensor is about 32 quid from dealers dont use the ebay ones ( not worth the hassle) replace rubber o-ring as you do it and you may need a new clip to hold sensor in

as for aircon the motor V71 is located behind glove box . does it click or cycle when you turn it on

good luck

[White Lightning]

It sounds like I am having as much fun as you.

I bought myself a 2002 model Passat 2.0 (petrol) Sport Estate last week and I have a reasonably long list of things to fix. The first of which was dampness in passenger footwells (mostly the rear on mine). There are two drain holes that get blocked (they were on mine). One is underneath the battery tray and the other is below the brake master cylinder. I used the guide here to sort mine out: Interior leaking | veedoubleu dot com

It is funny that you mentioned the interior lights. I have just been out and looked at mine as one of my rear interior lights and my interior boot light are not working. I tried pulling both out but they didn't want to give and I didn't want to break anything. I will try again with a small screwdriver.

[Crasher]

What, water in the footwells of a Passat! No, never!

[Sam]

Most of those issues will be related to the water

Search the forum for wet passat and CCM and go nuts. Fix it now rather than later or it will only get worse, much worse

[White Lightning]

Fix it now rather than later or it will only get worse, much worse

I read lots about the problem on here and that's why I made unblocking the drain holes the first job I did on mine (in the garage, after work, only two days after I got it ...)

[Crasher]

We had a moist A6 Allroad in last week, it must have had 15 gallons of water in the plenum chamber which was blocked with all sorts, the annoying thing was we only unblocked them a year ago but she has a tree over her driveway.

[chapster]

Thanks for advice about motor - it makes no noise...there is a cable hanging down into passenger footwell near the centre of dash behind radio area/bottom of glovebox, will look at it tomorrow, think it was 4-pin.

Well tonight I went for a drive with laptop hooked up hoping the VCDS Lite program would let me monitor live engine parameters and log them, but it'll only connect to the ECU when the car ignition is on but engine off. With engine on, it said it couldn't connect?

Anyway, regarding the lack of heat which, at 1 C outside and iced up windscreen is pretty important now, I found that the parameter showing the temperature airflow flap is responding as expected when changing the temp on the climatronic. At LO it says reading should be 218, and sure enough the actual reading starts climbing until it reaches that. When on HI, it starts going down to about 36 with specified being 38, so no problem there. Yet, after only a few minutes of heat, the air went cold but the flap motor still showed it was in the heating position. All air outlet sensors showed it was blowing cold air too, so I'm lost. What else might cause this hot/cold behaviour? And when I say hot, I mean warm.

Battery was down to 11.6V since using it yesterday so it only just started, and took a while again and was really clattery when it did catch. I've noticed that before it behaves like this, when I first put the ignition to on, there's a horrible gurgling sound coming from somewhere, sounds loud and nasty.

Not impressed with this car so far, I picked a wrong'un.

Edit: which sensor read-out on the VCDS Lite software is the one that the Climatronic uses to gauge the interior temperature to know when it's got the cabin to the correct temp?