Engine stops abruptly, electricity stays on, no obvious problems, 2000, 1.9 TDi

[Snortan]

My 2000 passat 1.9TDi is starting to make me worried.

This week while I was driving, doesn't matter the speed, it happened while I was turning a corner and it even happened on the highway driving straight, the engine will shut off instantly without any warning or stuttering/shudder/black smoke or anything like that, it just turns off and I lose power steering which is the scariest thing.
I noticed electricity stays on because the radio/air con stays on.
Sometimes the battery or oil light comes on and I've checked, they are completely fine and sometimes STOP comes up on the small screen.
When it shuts off, if I turn the key off and on it always starts back up without a hitch.
I have 2 bluetooth/wifi OBDII adapters and I was hoping maybe they could shed some light and give me some fault codes but after I connect them they do power up and I can connect to them from my phone/laptop but the adapters say they can't connect to ECU. The radio is stock and was never changed as far as I know and all fuses seem intact.

What could it be and what things can I check?
I'm hesitant about taking it to a garage before I know more since I've pretty much always been ripped off.

[itavaltalainen]

Your Passat cannot do OBD2..... it is purely a KWP connection.
I would guess there is a broken wire somewhere or the ignition switch has a fault.

First get it scanned with VCDS or VCP... these are VW specific tools that can read fault codes via the old VW OBD protocol. I am in Slough tomorrow and might be able to read faults for you for a beer token if you can make it to where I am.

[Snortan]

Oh... I didn't know that, just because it has an OBD port I assumed any tool with OBD support would do.

I'm away on work right now and wouldn't be able to make it to you tomorrow, not sure when I'll be back either. You usually in the area?

[itavaltalainen]

I am based near Worcester but around the whole country for my day job. Next two days in Slough, probably.... But in London quite soon again, almost certainly in next two weeks.



Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk

[Snortan]

I'll try to let you know when I'll be back in London or in the area if that's ok with you?

[itavaltalainen]

Sure. Just PM me... As I said all over country for work regularly so just let me know where you are.

Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk