Tdi issue, power drop!?

Jan 8, 2008
528
0
Portsmouth
Hi all, odd problem here...

Whilst driving down the road the car has juddered for a second (definite momentary power loss) and the glow plug flashed at the same time.

Light then goes off and car is normal. It had done this about 4 times in 2 days.

I did a full vagcom scan, no faults. Did some logs and nothing seemed out of the ordinary apart from the vagcom kept crashing saying no response from controller in the middle of running some logs.

A couple of times the readings where conpletley scrambled on vag com, temp reading went from 61 deg to minus 100 and Somthing..... Whats broke now lol!
 
Jan 8, 2008
528
0
Portsmouth
That was my first thought, had a look and no way water got to it, it's conpletley wrapped in a black bag!

I have a spare ecu from an alh (mines an ASV) and tried it but with that ecu there was no power to the injection pump so I can only assume this ecu will not work on my car. The second ecu has a custom remap and immobi delete on it!

I'm starting to think the problem could just be the brake light switch but that wouldn't explain the lack of communication to the ecu!
 

Muttley

Catch that diesel!
Mar 17, 2006
4,987
31
North Kent
ALH is a TDI 90 engine but has the same variable vane turbo as ASV.

The injection pump on both engines is mechanically driven though, so I'm not sure what you mean by no power to the pump?

When you say "The second ecu has a custom remap and immobi delete on it!" do you mean the ASV one or the ALH? Do you know if the work was done through the OBD port or by physically opening the ECU and "chipping" it? In any case, it's been modified so can't be relied on as a control item. The ECU has to be matched to the immobiliser and the vehicle code, read from the previous ECU, also has to be entered (it says here).

ECU's don't normally come wrapped in a black bag (I assume it's plastic) so it's been interfered with at some time in the past. The plastic shelf below the windscreen is supposed to keep water off the ECU: if this has a crack or is missing then it needs to be replaced. The transparent window goes brittle and cracks - seal it with transparent tape.

Wrapping the ECU in a bag will have compromised its cooling. It is just possible it is starting to fail from overheating. However your intermittent communication fault tells me you should look at the connectors first. Get some contact cleaner on them and see if this improves things. The other problem with wrapping the ECU up is that it doesn't get a chance to dry out, and the contacts may have some surface corrosion.
 
Jan 8, 2008
528
0
Portsmouth
Cheers for the help, missed these replies.

The ASV (standard) ecu had severe moisture previously. I removed it, split the caseing and left it to dry out for about 2 weeks, I think I also gave it a light heat up with a heat gun whilst it was apart. Once dried out it seems fine. No issues for 2-3 weeks (previous to that car was off the road). I wrapped a black bag on it myself to prevent water damage again.

The scuttle plastics are not damaged but they have been letting water in somwhere. Is it worth taking them off and sealing the joins with silicone or Somthing?

The alh (from a skoda I think) ecu was purchased online and I don't know the history of it. It was sent to a very reputable tuner (AmD technic) and they had to open the ecu and delete the immobiliser. I think they used some sort of chip for this. They also copied my custom remap from their files to the ecu. They never had my car to test the ecu. When I said no power to the pump I meant fuel system in general. When I try to start the car with the alh ecu there is no glow plug light atall, no sound from the fuel shut off and relay 109 does nothing so getting no power I assume.

It did this again today at about 75mph and only once I hit a big bump on the motorway, this time the tcs light came on and stayed on so I should have a fault code to pull tomorrow. Also whenever the glow plug light flashes the revs drop. Not sure if it would stall the engine but at least a 2-300 rpm drop. As soon as the glow plug light goes off the revs return to normal.
 

Seatmann

Rough around the edges
Sep 16, 2010
5,568
9
Scotlanda
Next you'll be asking for my old wiring loom :D

What's the codes/numbers on the two ecus? Maybe AmD fried the new one when fitting a chip. Unless it's 2003 or newer then the tdi ones usually need a chip to take a tune and that's a risky job.
 

Seatmann

Rough around the edges
Sep 16, 2010
5,568
9
Scotlanda
I think you should check the numbers first just to be certain it is compatable with your car, I mean you get the ALH in loads of cars but they all have different sensors etc and the same ecu wont run both cars unless they're compatable. I had to look into this when I was thinking of doing the vnt conversion on the cordy.