Catastrophic ECU failure!

superchargedpolo

superchargedpolo

Senior Member
T6 Pro
A friend of mine has a 2014 California, well looked after with full VWSH. It’s a 180bhp with DSG AND 4motion. He has owned it from new.
Was driving home on the dual carriageway on Sunday when the van lost all power and had to coast to the hard shoulder. The AA came out after an hour or so and recovered the van to VW dealer as the battery had completely drained itself and was only reading 6v.

VW Edinburgh have diagnosed that the ECU is at fault as it blows a 30a fuse every time it is connected. All other wiring looks fine.
Replacement cost £1900!!!

I’ve never heard of modern ECUs failing in such a catastrophic fashion. Wiring or sensors maybe, but not the ECU.
Has anyone else had a similar issue? Do you think there is any recourse possible with VW for a good will gesture? £2k for an ECU is just madness.
Any thoughts or experiences much appreciated.
 
Very unusual ... obviously a hard fault to blow a main fuse....

Though you would have expected them to have bench tested the unit out the van, or swapped it for a know good to prove the diagnosis. (Even main dealers can get things wrong)

Was it BCM or ECM?
 
There are numerous powers and grounds for the ECU,s

I wonder what 30A part of the ECU they are saying has failed.

I suppose anything is possible, but just dont sound right.

Maybe send the ECU off to a 3rd party repair place yourself?
 
I'd be looking over all the wiring. Bossman had a problem with his first t5.1, kept blowing starter motor fuse. Dealer did lots of part swapping and gave up in the end and gave a load of fuses and said change when necessary. Turned out that the wire had chafed through and was occasionally hitting chassis taking the fuse out.

I would not trust a dealers diagnosis of failed ecu.
 
I totally agree with all the posts above. I don’t really trust the dealer diagnostics, I can see the new ecu getting fried the first time it’s connected. Not a component you want to sacrifice at £1700 a pop!
 
If it was mine I'd be getting it to a reputable specialist, a dealer is not the place for this sort of job in my experience.
 
I agree with using a specialist and not VW. On that note, does anyone know such a specialist in Scotland as the vehicle will need to be transported there.
 
ES Alternators in Kirkintilloch did an ECU/wiring repair for either my A6 or A8 a few years ago. Nice guys and not too expensive from memory. Maybe with giving them a call.
 
Nope. The can is 6 years old. Gulp.
To be fair, it's been faultless to this point. So £1500 all in for 6 years of motoring isn't horrific. That said I'd still say the ECU would be the last thing to go.
 
Did you get yo keep the old one?

Send off for repair?

Crack it open for an autopsy?
 
I'm currently waiting for this work to be completed on my 6 month old van. Bought via a converter, and fault first became apparent at 250 miles. It's only done 1500 in the time I was waiting for a van centre to look at it and take the warranty work seriously.
Getting the warranty work started has been a battle. On my second van centre and only now making progress after I've escalated a complain to VW central tech team.
Guys...please tell me the prognosis is bright.
I've invested heavily in a brand new van and a top of the range conversion.
BTW conversion company have been excellent, very supportive and have tried to help with their industry contacts....but to be fair to them, they have fulfilled all of their contractual obligations to me.
Currently, the ECU has been replaced but won't accept their attempts to reprogram it.
 
HindleyJo said:
I'm currently waiting for this work to be completed on my 6 month old van. Bought via a converter, and fault first became apparent at 250 miles. It's only done 1500 in the time I was waiting for a van centre to look at it and take the warranty work seriously.
Getting the warranty work started has been a battle. On my second van centre and only now making progress after I've escalated a complain to VW central tech team.
Guys...please tell me the prognosis is bright.
I've invested heavily in a brand new van and a top of the range conversion.
BTW conversion company have been excellent, very supportive and have tried to help with their industry contacts....but to be fair to them, they have fulfilled all of their contractual obligations to me.
Currently, the ECU has been replaced but won't accept their attempts to reprogram it.
Click to expand...
What's the faults, issues and symptoms?

Who diagnosed a faulty ECU?

ECU needs to be programmed via a main dealer AFAIK.
 
Dellmassive said:
What's the faults, issues and symptoms?

Who diagnosed a faulty ECU?

ECU needs to be programmed via a main dealer AFAIK.
Click to expand...
It 1st came up with a sensor from the coolant to the radiator and the fan stayed on all the time. I think there have been other subsequent fault codes too....but I'm not sure as I've not been fully informed.

VW service centre have diagnosed and VW central tech team are working with them to resolve it now....only after I raised a complaint about it though.

Communication has been dire up to this week so I have no written details of the fault codes etc. All communication this week has been verbal over the phone, but the customer service manager assigned to the case are supposed to be getting back to me next Tuesday. The pace of the response has been ridiculously slow. I know that supply chain issues are impacting everything at the moment, but I'm not convinced the issue was looked at properly until I escalated the complaint.

Do you have faith that this can be sorted?
 
Keep records of all dialogue and facts/times/details
You bought a new van and they are obliged to fix it within a reasonable timescale, if they can’t fix it in a reasonable timescale ask for a courtesy vehicle for the duration of this period etc etc
Don’t let them fob you off and keep at it if they don’t fix it, quite often the dealers do all they can and it’s a bouncing act between you the dealer and VW uk, push push push and ask for double what you want
If all else fails go to the socials and ask them in public !
 
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