Mr. Z

I'll try to make a long story short. About 2 weeks ago, the car suddenly died while at idle in a parking lot on a rainy day. "Shop A" says they checked codes (not with VAG-COM) and only show TPS code. They say it is fuel pump and that fuel pump wouldn't throw a code. They get new pump from dealer, spend 2 days in the trunk and can't get it to work right. During this process, they've apparently done things like run fuel (I could've sworn the mechanic said something like propane) directly into the engine to confirm that it wasn't a spark issue.

Anyway... Shop A gives up and tows the car 90 miles to my local indy shop ("Shop B").

Shop B swaps in the new pump fairly readily and says that Shop A wrecked the old pump, so they can't confirm if it ever was the problem. (Note: Shop A told me, after the fact, that they'd simply shoved the old pump back in during transport to prevent gas fumes from filling car.)

Shop B runs codes (not with VAG-COM) and says that they get not only the TPS code, but also:

18020 / P1612
16680 / P0300
16680 / P0301
16680 / P0304
16680 / P0305

They say that their diag software returned something LIKE "PCM Program Not Found." They say ECU is wrecked and needs to be rebuilt (at no profit to them because they suggested I have it done on my own). Considering ECUDIRECT.com (opinions?).

Now to the QUESTION: A poster on the A8(D2) board talked about it possibly being a "soft coding" issue. Could VAG-COM help in this case?

Is there a way to prevent needing an R&R of the ECU?

Andy@Ross-Tech

Definitely scan it with VAG-COM or with a factory VAG tool.<ul><li><a href="http://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/faq_1.html#1.10">http://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/faq_1.html#1.10</a</li></ul>

Mr. Z

Are you saying ECU *might* not need to be rebuilt??

Mr. Z

Shop says "diagnostic tree" tells them "replace with known good ECU."

Bracketracer

And haven't ever seen one be the root cause of any P030xx codes.

Maybe start with year/make/model, and we'll go from there.

Mr. Z

past and present -- using borrowed VAG-COM (thanks, Troy!). Car didn't turn over, BUT... battery was low and one of the shop guys (who happened to be in on a Saturday) said that the mechanic working on the car may have some stuff disconnected. Once everything is back together, they'll recheck for codes on Monday with their generic OBD-II scanner and see if any new codes were thrown.

After we tried starting the car (but couldn't), we re-scanned with VAG-COM and no codes came up -- not even something for the ECU.

Question for VAG-COM experts: If the ECU is bad (or even flaky), will the P1612 code come up the minute the key is turned to the first (non-start) position? Or does the engine have to run to get any codes at all??

Mr. Z

Shop B thinks Shop A might have caused a short back to ECU when monkeying with fuel pump.

Bracketracer

this code should not illuminate the check engine light. It's a code for incorrect coding of the ECM. When you get the VAG hooked back up to it, make sure the coding is 01273.

Mr. Z

The coding under "Engine" said 01273 before we cleared the DTC &amp; we didn't alter.