BeetleRobb said:
I took all my keys and tried again. None of the remotes opened the car. Battery too dead. The switchblade keys just turned in the cylinder. Finally the valet key unlock the driver's side door. I got in and the headlights were on. Apparently when my wife was unloading groceries my 3 year old son got in there and turned them on. Now the battery charger is connected. I hope I don't have problems with the remote and radio now.
BTW, there is no outside lock on the passenger door.
Thanks,
rob
Was at the dealer today for the malfuntioning display in the instrument cluster, and still having hard starting issues when really cold. The service manager said that if the battery is drained to a point that causes the trip-odometer to reset to 0 on it's own, the car may need to be taken to the dealer so the ECU can be recalibrated to the throttle position sensor and a few other things. Don't know if it uses VAG-COM or not.
He also said that the car may need to be towed to the dealer.
If this is true, I find it F@@KING retarded that VW does not store this information in a non-volatile flash ROM or something else that does not loose it's memory when power is lost.
Will these 9V power backup things that plug into the cigaret lighter supply enough voltage and current to keep the ECU up while the battery is changed? I don't want to be FORCED to take it to the dealer just to have the battery changed and then be charged to set the ECU up again.
Might as well hook the jumper cables up right away when it gets real cold (trip meter reset trying to start it on the last -15F day we had - but car SEEMS to still run fine but does start with difficulty at temperatures less than 0F now).
VERY POOR DESIGN ON VW's PART (if it's true).
BTW- This all relates to a 2005 TDI-PD. Don't know if it is this way on all newer VW's (both deisel and gas) or only the TDI's.