I arrived last night at the airport after being gone for 5 days to find my battery totally dead.(my kids left the interior lights on) After jumpstarting the car, it now will not run unless I hold the gas pedal partways down, and runs horribly. I suspect that I may have fried some of the electronics even though I hooked up the cables correctly. I live in Chicago, can anyone recommend a good mechanic who could diagnose this problem? Any other suggestions? Thanks.

 

Disconnect the battery for a half hour for me. Then turn the key on to the point just before starting the car. Let the car sit for 10 minutes. This will make the car align the throttle body. This must be done after disconnecting the battery or it will run like crap.

 

yep, that explains why you have to hold the pedal down too.

 

Agree, hopefully you have the radio code too.

 

Thanks-I'll give it a shot. And I do have the radio code too.(keeping my fingers crossed)

 

Well, I tried doing as you suggested, but it didn't help-still runs very rough and won't idle unless I hold pedal down slightly. I kind've have the feeling that the ECU got affected- just by reading other posts. Any other suggestions?

 

Also- the radio is showing "SAFE". (it started showing this after jumpstarting car)

 

Vagcom and see what is going on.

 

Hence the reason we were hoping you had your radio code. RTFM and you will get your answer on this.

 

Had the car towed to a local dealer. They diagnosed it as needing a new throttle body-they first tried to clean the old one with no luck, and then installed a new one. They say it's running good now. I'm planning on picking it up at the end of the week, because I'm out of town. I do have the radio code and gave it to them, and they reactivated the radio.