Got a call from my neighbor about his fiancee's 03 Passat with the 1.8T in it. Had no power and all the gear indicators lit up like in limp mode. I took my ODBII reader with me and checked it out. Only a couple general cooling problem codes (P2181) that I cleared. Came out of limp mode when I started and I listened for a while and waited for any codes to show up again. No codes. The engine took revs without a problem. Went to take it for a test drive and as soon as I put in drive it dropped back to limp mode. At that point I was done and suggesteed they tow to my Audi mechanic.

After a day of transmission checking they determined it had lost 1st and 4th gears.

Then for whatever reason they checked and charged the battery overnight and then all was fine. No more limp mode.

I know this is a VW we are talking about but thought this might apply here as it is the same motor and year as my A4.

Does this sound reasonable that a low battery could cause this? It is the original battery so no question needs to be replaced.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

 

When my alternator was going, the battery would drain down and at about 9 volts or so the car went into limp mode. Not enough juice to run the TCM.

So the answer to your question is, yeah it is possible but it doesn't sound like what happened to the Passat.

Keep us updated.

 

Thanks, just seemed wierd as there was no warning about the tranni at all to suddenly loose two gears and fail.

Will keep you posted when they decide what is really going on.