# No start + Holy warning lights batman!



## Homer_J (Nov 27, 2017)

Hello VW community!

I’ve got a 2007 VW Eos 2.0T (DSG auto)

*The problem*: The car won’t start and the dash is lit up like a Christmas tree.

*Symptoms:* 

-The battery is fine, the car turns over and there will actually be ignition for a moment but the car refuses to continue to run. It’ll run for about 1 second and then die. If I mash the gas at the moment of ignition, the engine will rev pretty high even but then the revs drop to zero.

-After you turn the ignition on, there are tons of lights on the dash: Steering system, battery, airbag, ABS, Electronic stability, and the key is on for about 5 seconds, there are 3 long beeps and the BRAKE warning light starts to flash.

-Check engine light is actually NOT on. It should be on though because I’ve had a cooling system code for almost a year.

-I hooked a normal OBD code reader up to the car, and it fails to connect or read anything.

-I have a wifi OBD reader and the Carista app, tried that: It seems like it reads a fault for every computer there is!
-01321 – Control Module for Airbags (J234)
-01314 – Engine Control Module (ECM)
-01309 – Power Steering Control Module (J500)
-01316 – ABS Control Module
-01315 – Transmission Control Module (TCM)

Theres a few other small ones but those seem to be the major codes. (steering position sensor, and vehicle speed sensor) I don’t really know what these codes mean, if there is a fault with each of these modules or if it is unable to communicate with them at all.


*Things that I’ve tried:
*
-I thought maybe low voltage from a weak battery might be throwing all the computers for a spin. I charged the battery, checked and it was showing around 12.6V I think, reinstalled, no changes.

-Inspected engine bay, I did find one wire connector with a broken wire but I suspect it’s not causing all these problems. It’s difficult to see where it leads but searching for the part number for the plug seems to indicate it goes to one of the radiator fans. I’ll get around to repairing this soon.

-Checked any fuses I could find in cockpit and engine bay related to any of these systems. All seemed ok.

*Theories:*

-A few google searches has lead me to think that maybe a failed ABS module is part of the root cause. Some other cars with failed ABS seemed to have quite a few lights on the dash, and the triple beep with flashing brake light on dash. But this doesn’t seem to tell me why the engine won’t start. Ug also the ABS module looks like it’s between the engine and the firewall, not fun.

Here’s a video of a slightly newer Jetta with supposedly a bad ABS module and the dash looks pretty similar. Except this car starts and runs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgUjqCSrjhI

-I can’t imagine that all these systems could have failed at once, so I thought maybe the wiring harness was coming loose or something, or maybe one of these modules has failed, which makes all the other ones have issues.

Has anyone seen anything similar to this or have any ideas? I’m usually pretty handy and a good troubleshooter but I’m at a loss at where to go from here.


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## isoprene (Jul 5, 2007)

> -I thought maybe low voltage from a weak battery might be throwing all the computers for a spin. I charged the battery, checked and it was showing around 12.6V I think, reinstalled, no changes.


A battery at rest can read 12.6 just fine then fall flat on its face when the starter draws significant amps. If it were me, the next step would be to try a jump start from a vehicle with a solid amperage output (trucks are great for this but use what you got). I have no experience with this generation of VW but all those lights and codes generally implies battery. Golf VII for example will go full Xmas tree on a bad battery.


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## Homer_J (Nov 27, 2017)

*Success!*

Just to sum this thread up, fixed it!

Thanks for the response Isoprene, good point about the battery.

It actually ended up being that broken wire/wires.

Just below the Drivers (left) side headlight there is a strand of 3 bundled wires with a plastic connector that is clipped to the frame. These wires take a sharp bend and one was broken, and one was frayed. It was hard to tell if it was chewed by a critter or just worn from that bend. (I've been suspicious of chipmunks and mice lately since my hood liner seems chewed up.) I cut all three wires, and managed to splice in 3 new pieces of wire to the plastic connector, then re-wrapped all 3 together with electrical tape. I just barely had enough of the wires to work with sticking out of a much larger wiring harness before they disappeared, so I'm glad I avoided that nightmare.

I reconnected the battery, still had the steering and ESC lights on, but those went away after turning the wheel back and forth and driving around the block. I cleared the 55 fault codes that were present  and voila! Back to normal.

Glad I didn't start shopping for an ABS module until I addressed the wires. I'm really surprised that 1-2 broken wires caused such a seemingly high number of problems that weren't related to each other. I could see the engine not starting due to the ECU not working, or no ABS, or airbag problems, but all of the above is a bit unexpected.


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## isoprene (Jul 5, 2007)

:thumbup: Glad you sorted it.


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