It’s amazing you can run such a long list. I am sure you maintain your car well.
My Passat has 1.8T engine. Since last year, my Check Engine light showed up several times. I usually sent it to dealer to exam it and sent to Indi shop to repair it. The last time (6 month ago) Check Engine showed up, the Indi shop could not repair it. I sent to dealer and they did not find any problem and the Check Engine light was gone by itself.
And this week, a sign of “STOP, check your coolant” showed. I turned off the engine and it’s gone after I turned on the engine. It occurred three times in two days before I sent it to dealer. The dealer said someone put wrong coolant in it and it was leaking, so the coolant was almost gone. Besides that, he said there was crack in the transmission, and other problems. All the problems seemed to be emerging in 6 months, as when I sent the car to dealer 6 months ago, they never told me those problems.
NicMM
If you plan on keeping this car…. Two suggestions
1) Find yourself a new mechanic.
2) Invest in a relatively inexpensive OBD scan tool… Because the check engine light is useless unless you know specifically what the fault code is… And the good news is once you have a fault code, you can go to either clubb5.com or vwvortex.com or (if you really have to) audiworld.com (I know, but platform sharing) and pretty much figure out what the problem is because most people have most likely run into the same problem. And at least once you know the code, the mechanic can’t necessarily blow bullshit your way.
I also refer you to the audiworld.com forums because the a database of DIY contributions (which coincidently I made contributions to awhile ago too)…There’s even a step by step teardown process on how to do the t-belts, etc (no, I didn’t write that one). Some of the stuff is applicable to passats.
3) Consider getting a bentley repair manual.
If you get a check engine light, it could be for several reasons. Things that caused me to get it was
1) Bad MAF sensor (which should be covered under emissions warranty)
2) Bad hoses to lines, particular the ones that run right in front of the engine block along the radiator and the onces running to vac check valves.
3) bad oxygen sensors (you have two of them, and you should replace them in a pair).
I’m sorry to say, coolant in these 1.8T is really really important. You simply can’t put the prestone green/yellow stuff in it. If you mix store coolant you typically can get at auto parts store with the G12/G12plus coolant that comes in the VAG/Audis, you’re going to get a lot of cooling problems in the long run because it will end up being corrosive in an finicking aluminum engine block. There’s an older coolant from VAG called G11 which is green, that some old mechanics still use too. It’s the wrong coolant. In fact, if you mix G11 with G12, you get something that ends up like Jello.
So just remember. The color of your coolant should be purple (G12 plus), not green, yellow, orange or for that matter red (G12).
