Safety issue- Engine dies when changing gear.

Noticed mine today wont stop/start with air-con running on fan speed 1. If I turn air-con off then the stop/start will work again.
 
I've started this thread because it seems to be a different issue to one already posted, where the engine dies at low speed.
Just had the biggest scare of my life- going down a steep'ish hill, with a 90 degree bend at the bottom. Doing about 35mph in 4th gear. I started to change down to 3rd, and the engine died, with the loss of the power steering. Had it all on to navigate the bend and ended up on the grass verge.
I released the clutch in 3rd as it was slowing and it was dead. Once stationary i turned the ignition of, back on and it restarted normally, no warning lights, and didnt do it again on the way home.
It was pretty scary tbh. If the wife had been driving, it would have ended up in a ditch, without doubt. Will contact the dealer on Mon, but i am dreading the "no fault found" answer after a day wasted.
Sounds like you waited too long to change to 3rd and revs dropped too low and engine stalled. If you had dipped the clutch quickly at the point of total cut out it should have started straight away on its own. Once engine cuts out power steering can go. I had this happen on an island where I was in wrong gear. Scary stuff though.
 
Its hit and miss, my van will generally not stop/start with AC running but if the engines warm on a decent run (and i assume the battery is fully charged) then it will stop start if only on low fan speed as above
Anything that places excessive electrical load on the alternator will cause the S/S system to disable this includes A/C, heated screens, heated mirrors, heated seats etc and any aftermarket kit connected to van battery (not leisure battery) like invertors or chargers
It is also affected by atmosphere outside vehicle and temp. No set rules about when it will come on or cut out as depends on lots of factors. The ECU will know when it's able to do this.
 
Sounds like you waited too long to change to 3rd and revs dropped too low and engine stalled. If you had dipped the clutch quickly at the point of total cut out it should have started straight away on its own. Once engine cuts out power steering can go. I had this happen on an island where I was in wrong gear. Scary stuff though.

No, i depressed the clutch and the engine died before i released the pedal. There is no situation i'm aware of where that should happen. Had i engaged a gear that was too high, and pulled the engine revs below its minimum running speed, then i take your point ,but that didnt happen.
In retrospect, had i released the pedal, the engine may have restarted, and/or the steering come back in to play, but if it didnt restart i would have been stranded on a dangerous bend.
 
Hi,

I just found this website when I was looking for more information to understand what happened to my van this weekend. We picked up our new California Beach 150 HP manual a week ago and went for our first long drive this weekend (living in Vienna by the way). We experienced exactly the same what happened to TEESIXY and others this weekend. Complete engine shut down when making a (over) 90 degree bend with the loss of the power steerin while shifting down from 6th to 3rd gear! Scary stuff, fortunately we did not end up in a ditch or something. The next day I twice experienced an engine shot down while going at low speed but without power steering loss (I think). I assume this must be related. Following suggestions in the forum I will call VW assistance and report the issue. I will also bring back the van to the dealer for a thorough check. I was wondering if the issue has been solved by others who experienced this. Thanks!
 
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Hi,

I just found this website when I was looking for more information to understand what happened to my van this weekend. We picked up our new California Beach 150 HP manual a week ago and went for our first long drive this weekend (living in Vienna by the way). We experienced exactly the same what happened to TEESIXY and others this weekend. Complete engine shut down when making a (over) 90 degree bend with the loss of the power steerin while shifting down from 6th to 3rd gear! Scary stuff, fortunately we did not end up in a ditch or something. The next day I twice experienced an engine shot down while going at low speed but without power steering loss (I think). I assume this must be related. Following suggestions in the forum I will call VW assistance and report the issue. I will also bring back the van to the dealer for a thorough check. I was wondering if the issue has been solved by others who experienced this. Thanks!

Mine hasn't done it again, despite numerous attempts to get it to when conditions allowed. Dealer checks appear to be limited to checking fault codes, and the well being of a gasket around the MAF. As previously mentioned by me, there is a problem, i neither imagined it or caused it by poor driving.
I doubt that anything meaningful will be done until there is an incident of some sort caused by it.
 
I read this elsewhere within the last week and VW have been able to recreate the fault.

It happens when going down an incline and you lift off the throttle.

They were keeping the vehicle and developing a software fix.
 
It also happened to me sometimes ... manual 150cv ... when it releases the accelerator at low speed ... the bad thing is that the steering does not work ..... it 's really a shit the' electronics of this engine ...
 
It also happened to me sometimes ... manual 150cv ... when it releases the accelerator at low speed ... the bad thing is that the steering does not work ..... it 's really a shit the' electronics of this engine ...

As an update my van is still in, they won't let me have it back due to the safety issue (loss steering and brake assistance) It's been over a month now. The dealer has no more information and suggested I call VW customer service who could chase the factory. Called them and was bemused by the response, apparently UK customer service have no means of contacting the factory?? The lady said all she could do was call the dealer and get an update, I told her there was no point as they had told me all they knew but she did anyway, called me back and said "we don't know what the issue is or what we're doing to do to fix it"

I'm not sure what to do next, whether to play the "I want a refund or compensation" card?
 
I had on my scirocco a noise on the front of the car and they couldn't reproduce it etc etc for ages. Back and forth in the end i was so annoyed i forced VW to interogate the computer databases. They claim they aren't all talking to eachother - RUBBISH ! Anyway they found the fault on the clutch and it was a bad spring. There was an audio file uploaded by a good old efficient german engineer onto the database and all was sorted on warranty. 7 years on and way out of warranty all is good.

So whilst you're in warranty pursue this with vengeance as your issue is really serious mine was just annoying noise! They will try and fob you off!
 
I have had this issue happen a few more times, even with start/stop switched off, and don't laugh but the last time was when I was in a funeral procession (very embarrassing), so I have tried to replicate the situation to try to get some answers. I went to a quiet industrial estate on a Sunday afternoon, what I found was that in second gear at low revs/speed the engine stalled repeatedly, however in first gear I managed to drive around the estate even up a slight incline with no feet on the pedals and no stalling, so my assumption is that it is down to changing my style of driving and keeping the revs higher. I am not that mechanically minded so can anyone give me there thoughts
 
Still it shouldn't happen really. You should be able to lift off on the flat decelerating and the revs should be able to maintain an idie therefore a certain speed
 
Every car I've had petrol or diesel could do it, only if you put the brake on then the revs would drop to low and stall
 
Back again, I definitely think there is a major fault, tonight on the way home on a busy A road I decided to pull into a lay -by, so slowing down from 50 mph pretty sharpish ON A FLAT ROAD no differential to what I have done before, as I entered the lay-by the steering went and the engine had cut out (again). This has now gone to far and I will be reporting it again first thing in the morning, I seem to notice on here, that this is only happening to the 150 ps manuals, if it helps mine was registered in March 2017, oh and I am not going to take any more bullshit off the so called tech guys at the dealers. How many more people are there out there with this problem I wander ??????
 
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I think we will be getting some news on this soon and a recall in due course.
I hear this is now a known problem on certain vehicles but VW are still diagnosing and coming up with a fix
 
Called Roadside assistance today,(making sure it gets logged) the operator stated that if this had happened whilst changing lanes on the motorway and slowing down it could potentially be fatal !!!! The AA chap came and could not find a fault (no surprise there) so I phoned the dealer, who at least showed some concern, and I am now looking to get it booked in. Get this, the guy at the dealers said "it could be down to the start/stop threshold being set to high/low, I told this to the AA/VW roadside assist guy and he said "b******s never heard of that". Reassuring don't you think, anyway I will persevere and keep posting.
By the way thanks Pauly, a fix can't come soon enough.....
 
This is a serious fault and i now know VW are investigating it/working on a fix for it, i dont have anymore info than that im afraid but something should be coming in due course but that could be days/weeks/months ??
 
I know it's not exactly the same as your issue but I think the start stop threshold is too high on my dsg 150 too.

Often it stops before I've come to a complete halt at junctions and roundabouts
 
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