[momfor3kids]

Our 2000 Beetle had the timing belt replaced a couple of years ago by our local mechanic. He didn't have what it took to turn off the check engine light. We don't have a local VW dealership, and given that it was our teenager's car and never really left town, we never got around to taking it to a dealership in another location to get rid of the light. The car drove as smooth as could be.

In the last several weeks (before sending aforementioned teen off to college out of state), I ordered a scanner that was capable of turning off the check engine light. I turned it off and it came back on, and gave us fault code 17748 as the reason.

That code indicates the following problem: Camshaft/Crankshaft Position Sensors - Out of Sequence

We took the car to our local mechanic, and he checked everything out and said the engine, timing belt... all of it was exactly as it should be. The car wasn't having any issues at all when being driven. He said that apparently, one or the other sensor wasn't communicating properly - he didn't know which one - and that if it was driving okay it was up to us to decide whether or not we wanted to spend the $500ish to repace them. The downside of not doing so was that we couldn't get the check engine light to go off, so if a new, real problem arose, we wouldn't know it. Ultimately, we opted not to have him replace them at that time.

As we were taking our child off to college - which included taking the Beetle - it started having issues. When the gear is shifted into the next position, it didn't seem to want to pick up the new position. It was sluggish and it would take a bit of time for it to kick into the new gear. Initially it was just happening at higher speeds, but eventually it was behaving that way at lower speeds. When it was trying to keep up with a lead vehicle, it had trouble... but when I drove it and just eased into a higher rate of speed, I really didn't have too much of a problem.

Could this resistance to moving into the next gear be the result of the faulty Camshaft/Crankshaft Position Sensors? Or rather, them being out of sequence?

 

[jfoj]

Does your car have an automatic transmission? 4 or 6 speed? Transmission valve bodies are known problems with these cars.

Seems the code you has indicated that there is a problem with the correctional between the crank and cam sensor?

See this info below from Ross-Tech

17748/P1340/004928 - Camshaft Position Sensor (G40) / Engine Speed Sensor (G28): Incor. Correlation
Possible Causes

Timing Belt/Chain incorrectly installed
Timing Chain probably lengthened
Camshaft Position Sensor (G40) faulty
Engine Speed Sensor (G28) faulty

Possible Solutions

Check Timing Belt/Chain installation
Use Measuring Value Blocks (MVB) to Check Timing Chain
Check/Replace Camshaft Position Sensor (G40)
Check/Replace Engine Speed Sensor (G28)

17748/P1340/004928 - Ross-Tech Wiki

I would get someone to verify the timing belt is in fact correctly timed. It could easily be of by 1 tooth??

Given it is for a college student, you should make sure it is fact running correctly.

The crank sensors seem to be more of an issue than the cam sensors in these cars, but I would verify the belt timing first.

 

[momfor3kids]

Thanks for the info. When I took it to our local guy, he checked everything out - particularly the work they had done on it in 2011 - to make sure everything was still as it should be, as it is under warranty with them. At the time, the vehicle was experiencing zero problems when being driven. It was just as smooth as smooth could be when shifting, running at both high and low speeds, etc..

It's a manual, by the way.

When I dropped it off, I told him what I had read online when researching that particular fault code - that sometimes things had slipped a single tooth, etc. - and he specifically checked for those things, and when nothing was amiss, he said that one of those two sensors was apparently not working exactly right, because none of the other possible reasons for that code was an issue. He said both the camshaft and crankshaft sensors looked okay... but obviously, one wasn't communicating with the other properly.

What I'm mainly trying to discern is if the issues we are having with it being sluggish after switching gears, and not wanting to accelerate properly, are symptoms of a crankshaft /camshaft communication issue.

 

[D2Beetle]

There is only one Crank Sensor (aka Engine RPM Sensor) on a 2000 NB; if it is a Turbo it will also have a Transmission Speed Sensor. Both of which are priced around $80 to $100 and they are not difficult to replace if you have DIY skills. Hard to say if the sluggishness is related; if it were me, I would check the vacuum hoses, change the gear oil and both sensors.

Also, "looks" can be deceiving ...