I also recently found a rusty razor in almost the same place under the hood in my daughters new 986 Porsche. Probably / hopefully from when the convertible roof was replaced before purchased. Thanks for the great videos. 👍
Hi Charles, As a power electronics specialist I love watching other specialists work in other disciplines. And diagnostic work is fascinating. So I watch watch you are doing and I am just nodding my head all the way. I am enough of a petrol head to understand it, so it's great to follow along. And here's the kicker, it takes years of experience to get a guy to where he is doing this kind of work. You sharing this with your videos is mentoring the young generation of techs who need to learn. I hope there's folks who benefit from you channel content as what you teach is not trivial. Kind regards, South Africa
General Mechanic shops: "Volkswagens are shit!" VW specialty shop: "No, they're pretty easy when you have the right tools and don't just shotgun everything."
@@HumbleMechanic It's alright for a shop to branch out to a couple different brands of the same market domestic market. But general "we fix it all" shops should be avoided by everyone. Jack of all trades(brands), master of none.
@@TopDedCenter That's not true especially when it come to diagnostic which is what this video is. Literally all manufacturers have the same or very similar circuit and system designs. Some are a little different. So what? You just learn how it works, if you didn't learn how something works then why even bother trying to fix anything? Your comment is really ignorant. We have a little bit more brain capacity than you think lmao we don't need your approval for how many different manufacturers we can handle. An ignition coil on every car is the same. It's just a step up transformer just depends on how its controlled and where its located. Spark plugs are the same Engines internals are all the same makes no difference in diag Injectors are all basically the same there's a couple different designs which aren't hard to learn All potentiometers, thermistors, pressure sensors, speed sensors, sensors in general etc are exactly the same through all makes. Networks are the same just sometimes slight differences that make no difference really in diag The diagnostic routine in general is exactly the same for all makes HVAC, EVAP, Suspension, TPMS, key fobs and basically everything else is all VERY similar or exactly the same through all makes. A light bulb is a light bulb and you diagnose it as such even if it looks different. It's the same shit.
@@TopDedCenter I dont agree, good independent workshops are some of the best of all, the experience of varied makes and models tends to lead to a greater understanding of fault finding and diagnosis, that said, there are people who are specialists on a given make or model for good reason, but they are hard to find, even at main dealers for the brand in question.
@Joseph Johnson until u cant replace the part because I know a lot of customers who say I can do it them self and then come to us to fix there mistake 😂
@Joseph Johnson that’s fine, little stuff like that is easy, but it’s when people try to do something else they don’t know how to do is kinda frustrating to repair.
Exactly my position now. Ive always worked on my cars unless they were new and the dealer did the service for free like toyota(24 months free service). Well after my first service at 5000 miles they left a lug-nut off. Im doing all the service myself now.
I feel like so many shops and dealer service centers are just part changers these days instead of having quality diagnostics. I think it comes back to the whole flat rate pay system
Its both the manufacturers fault as well as the shops. 6 years experience here. Cars are becoming so horrendously complicated, that the average shop/ joe has absolutely no chance of having quality understanding of any components/ modules the vehicles carry. Training is extremely expensive and time consuming, so 95% of shops will just throw techs at the wind in hopes of landing successful/ quick diagnostics. Flat rate only increases this issue tenfold.
I love the simplicity of my 2005 Citroën. I'd hate to have to take the car to the expensive shops every time something is wrong with it, which luckily hardly ever happens anyway.
I will probably have to spend all the next Sunday pausing this video every 10 seconds to translate to my dad what you are saying. This is awesome! He’s on his fourth VW Golf and It would be so great to have mechanics like you around here. You are in another level!
Wow this is exactly what i went through 3 weeks ago lol. Helping a friend fix her 1.6 Fiesta RSI. Ended up having to rewire the whole car... Added a new standalone ECU. Then after all that it started up for the first time in 3 years and driving properly now. Great video.
Man, it never ceases to amaze me how knowledgeable you are and how efficient you are with your troubleshooting. My brother is the mechanic in our family and he was the one that put me on to your channel. He convinced me to pick up a mk6.5 GLI which i was a bit nervous about considering how complex vw/audi vehicles are, but the more i watch your channel the more at ease i feel about it lol
I have a passat 2.0t that I've been trying to work on and your videos, as far as the Volkswagen content I've seen, have been so helpful in my understanding of what I'm doing! Thanks so much for your content!
Looking forward to the next video on this one, it’s always “fun” to see mix and match parts in a non purpose built car. Cross referencing part numbers is critical to ensure compatibility, always!
The shop I worked at about a decade ago had a Blue B5 A4 cabriolet with the 3.0L 30V V6 come in for the Tbelt and ancillaries, a slight miss that previous shops and us thought was coil packs. We used the cam locking tools and they wouldn't quite fit. Turns out the previous shop that had replaced the Tbelt had it off by a tooth or so, the Cam pulley and interface are a wedge not a woodruff key and can therefore be essentially infinitely positioned, anyways. Base timing was the issue. The codes thrown indicated a bad cam sensor or coil packs on certain cylinders. Thanks for taking the time to document your process.
@@HumbleMechanic You're one of the good go-to's for maintenance in general too. I have a Scion and Dodge and still pick a lot of things up - I'm not 100% sure, but you may have been where I learned cutting an empty oil quart up to make an economical oil funnel... 😂
THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOO! MUCH! I watched MANY of your vids.. and on my 2015 GTI w/90K I noticed a bit of a 'stutter' when idling.. .. dealer said it was a fuel system issue I spent $3000.. stutter DID NOT GO AWAY.. watched a ton of you vids.. I replaced all 4 coil injectors.. FIXED THE PROBLEM.. now in a fight with dealer.. THANK YOU!!! If you are ever in Delray Beach, FL Beer is on me!
Great video! Im tech for VW, and I really enjoy how you break things down and explain. I wish I had more folks like you at my work.. learned more in this video than I likely will all week unfortunately
New subscriber here - from Australia. I do roadside breakdowns and face many tears from members, many heartaches, many headaches, much head scratching, and some misdiagnoses but also many special victories and jubilation. You have a 15 to 30-minute window to diagnose a no-start, all while on the side of the road, often in poor weather and usually with traffic screaming past, and an anxious member who won't shut up who wants a definitive answer as to EXACTLY what is the problem. If presented with the car in this video, I will tow and ship it to your workshop dude! 😎
Hi Charles, great channel 👍 My Wife has a 2010 golf 1.6tdi cayc with an automatic transmission. I’m an ok mechanic. I’m going to be refreshing the entire suspension this summer and I am not as worried now about starting it. Keep up the good work 👍 Hello from England
Now I don't feel bad at all. I had a cc with pretty much the same issues and i was stumped. I put 3 different ecu's in it and it just would not cooperate. This one came in with chain noise so i replaced the chain and all the associated components and i suggested to the customer that he should have the hpfp done also. He of course said no so after i got everything back together the timing issues were fixed but it still had this weird stumble on acceleration. Felt like insufficient fuel. Damn those fuel pumps all together.. Finally i got the right computer in it and it ran alot better than when it came in but it wasn't perfect. The customer was really happy with it so i gave him a list of potential issues and said God bless..
@@HumbleMechanic Not if its a Chrysler. I replace 10 ECM on Chrysler vs any other make. Ford is second, but at least theirs are from known issues (usually coil driver melts along with a coil). Chrysler just have bad Eeprom and will brick themselves from wrong checksum data. Also issues with trans control on all the ECM/TCM combo PCMs. Routan will get them soon if engine control is mopar too, just wait.
This is a perfect example of the mess that can be made by parts swapping. I have been seeing this a lot over the last several weeks. These are cars I walk away from because the shop/customer can’t afford my time to find everything that is wrong or fix the problems they caused to then get us to a point of actually diagnosing the original problem.
We had a high mileage Benz (220,000km) come into our dealership courtesy an over enthusiastic buyer who purchased it as at auction as 'non starting' (but someone had restored the body/interior to mint). Weeks of hair pulling by my mechanics later i asked if the car had its original ECM, frantic nodding in the affirmative. Then I asked if the vehicle had its original engine... light bulbs went off all over the workshop... yep, had been engine swapped for later, incompatible model. We sold the vehicle as a parts car to somene who had the same model with good mechanicals but lousy body. Not worth our time to fix.
U could also easily backprobe the cranck and cam sensor and check timing whit a scope. I love diagnostics jobs when they come in. Its challenging and you learn something everyday.
watching vids like this make me so happy I bought a base model Golf with 2.5 and manual trans. i think my ABS module died, every light is on the dash but it still drives fine, so ef it.
I am so glad that I settled on Lexus when purchasing a car. I had looked at Audi, VW they have so many reliability issues that I really do not need to experience. There is a lot that other manufacturers could learn from in build quality and sound engineering from Lexus. They are not however as good at keeping a mechanic employed !!!
yeah. VW even has a tamper-proof 'leash' attached to the radiator, due to some ozone-scrubbing patent they took out & make the purchasers pay for. Shop unknowingly tampers with something in the vicinity, repair light triggers. Ridiculous engineering. I prefer their cheating diesels, at least those were somewhat innovative. : )
The VAG group is the most race successful automaker in motorsports... Reliability is part of the formula in winning especially in endurance racing..... The point is that the VW group knows how to make something reliable, it's whether they WANT to make it reliable for the consumer........ And unfortunately they choose not to...... And that goes for all automakers..........
@@MiguelGarcia-vj7oo If they put their "reliable" race machine on the street to be driven day in and day out for thousands and thousands of miles it would be less reliable than the production car and require much more attention to keep it running. These race cars require very high maintenance and constant attention by service technicians to keep them running. So whether they can make a reliable vehicle for every day use is questionable.
Regarding gunk on valves, on my mk5 gti I had a misfire on cylinder 4 and wanted to see if cleaning the gunk will make some difference. Cleaned it, took the decision to mount everything back as I was really curious, car was running the same. Only afterwards I swapped the injector 4 with number 3 and got the misfire code on cylinder 3. So after changing the faulty injector with an OEM one, car was running smooth, especially at cold start. So yes, in total there were three mounting and demounting operations, lots of effort, but at least I diagnosed it step by step.
Charles, check the 3.6 upper front most timing chain guide. With the HPFP it causes a lot more wear on the guides and they commonly fail at this mileage and cause the HPFP to skip timing. I'd be willing to bet the guide is cracked in two places and the mid section is still bolted on. The fuel pump skips timing first and the rest of the motor stays in time but has the potential to skip timing and blow up.
There is a guy that specializes in VW, Audi, BMW, etc. His name is Hunter Gaskin. He has a shop in Jacksonville Florida. The shop is named Southside Euro. I can guarantee he would fix the problem with this car. That guy is the best to ever do it. Genius mechanic when it comes to anything Euro.
Was in the auto repair business for years, mostly Bosch systems. The first thing I did when I got a car in the shop with problems was demand ALL the "old" parts, reinstalled them and then chased down the real problem. It was rarely what had been replaced.
wish i knew how to fix cars. its fun if you know everything. i took a manifold off vw and and said nope, i'm not fixing it myself. but i learned alot just taking the manifold off cuz it taught me variety of components in the engine such as timing chain, purge valve, fuel pressure, coolant hoses, valve cover, etc, etc....different sensors everywhere.
It seems that those other shops are the same shops that send only the best cars to South Main Auto. It would be a good video for you to do a collaboration with Eric O.
Dangerous beard hanging near those crazy fast-spinning ventilators. Quite useful tips: scan, search, test. Sometimes we start by the most complex angle. From an engineer POV starting from 1 rather than 10 could make the difference. Great video Charles!
I do really enjoy the though process and the professionalism that you use. The explanations are clear and concise as well as the logic that you use. I did automotive and locomotive repair work and found that logic in a great deal of mechanics was something that was direly lacking. Awesome video the sound, picture and editing quality were spot on! Thanks for the ride along for the diagnostic tree that you used!
Wow! You are THOROUGH! New (2 years) to the VW scene. 09 CC VR6. Love the car, but she is a bit long in the tooth. Hopefully you have more videos featuring the 3.6. I gotta get a scantool. I imagine that's a pro set-up (and expensive) you have there. Any recommendations for a newbie with a VR6 that's got about 150K on it? Thanks for making these videos! And any specific advice you may have.. .
Love the videos. It is so hard to explain problems like that to both the customer and service advisor. There is no plug the scanner in get all the answers in .5. Thanks for all your hard work.
People shouldn’t own things they aren’t capable of remotely understanding. Ignorance in this day and age is a choice. And if u choose not to. And want it a certain way. U force it upon someone else. Someone who could otherwise live a simple and sustainable life. Think about it.
Wow! Excellent video as always. Some similar issues to my Touareg, every time I got my car back it was worse. The last shop admitted they broke something so refused to charge me. At least mine has the right ECM though.😅
I would say you have a bad high pressure fuel pump, you should have something closer to 40 bar at idle, 6 bar is tank pressure. A stretched chain on a fsi vr usually causes a fuel pressure malfunction fault and if you check it at idle you end up reading about 120 bar because the pulses of the pump and injectors are not lining up. Being the regulator is working I would lean more towards a pump also the 3.6 uses a roller and not a flat tappet like the bpy so wear isn’t usually an issue
Love watching your videos! Not consider myself a mechanic but I love to work on cars. Now my 2004 Nissan Altima with 270,000miles is giving me a headache trying to solve the problem.. already took it to 5 mechanics and they want me to replace parts that I already did.. wish me luck
Very, very good trouble shooting. Always learning something from you. By the way, last week, finally I swapped my hemi engine of my Challenger/Sommercar. It has metallshavings since Year 1 / 2016 Now, its a brandnew engine from mopar, I did it by myself in an garage here in cold germany :-) (Wintertime)
@@HumbleMechanic Thank you charles, that means a lot for me ! Sometimes, i am smilling. You ordering parts from germany for your VWs and I'm from the US....... :-) V/R Andreas
Ah, the venerable BLV 3.6. Over the years, the only problems that have been routine are worn high pressure pumps...and aged timing chains. Solid engine. For the customer, it's a big step to separate the transmission and rebuild the timing chain drive. But, if the rest of the CC is in good shape, it's a good investment. The most fun BLV find is rare, it was offered on the little EOS. No replacement for displacement, as the gearheads will tell you.
Having a vw jump to different shops being incorrectly diagnosed and having parts thrown at it seems all too common. I bought an mk5 brm and had a maf code, it was also spooling the turbo until cavitation constantly. Looks like one shop followed the owners manual and removed the MAF fuse. The next shop replaced the turbo (??), and replaced the map sensor with a common rail one. I found a service manual. Replaced the fuse and the map sensor with the right one and it ran perfect after that! Poor guy had a bill of like 4 grand which was totally not needed
I had one with alot of electronic codes for different systems (Golf mk5). Turned out to be the in tank fuelpump relay module being shorted to ground but it also caused the pump to not turn off with the key. But those electronics can be fickle. Had codes for everything connected to canbus.
I just stumbled upon this video again and decided to watch it. How can you go wrong with watching Charles? It dawned on me on why I say "It's unhappy, or "Super unhappy noise", or similar...its because of Charles, lol.
Just got an 09 jetta 2.5 for $750. Trying to do this all myself is pretty difficult. Got codes p2401 and p2177. Havent found a direct answer on what is going on. So far ive changed the pcv diaphragm and the evap purge n80 valve. Going to get the codes reset and go from there. It runs drives and stops great. I also changed the oil which was really dirty and probably 8 quarts of oil in it. Also fixed the vacuum booster oil leak. Really excited about this car and hopefully dont have much to do. After i get the light off going to do the ac and get it legal
I have just finished working on a Holden Trax (Chevy Trax) that consistently threw a MAP sensor code at idle, vehicle was also hard to start and was blowing black smoke at idle along with rough running. It had been to various shops and had the ECM on the front seat as an indicator. A quick check of the MAP sensor circuit and operation on the data stream showed it was working ok except the reading was wrong, around 4inHG at idle manifold vacuum. A bit further investigation uncovered that the car had a cylinder head replaced with an exchange item in the past, checking the part numbers on the cams and the head showed the correct part number for the head but the cams were for a Holden Cruze. The Cruze had a different intake cam and phaser and the intake timing was out by 30 degrees retarded. Swapping the original cams into the new head involved removing the head and having the valve seats cut and the valves tipped off to get the valve lash spec right for the original cams, as lash adjusters were ex-Korea, 8 weeks away and 50 dollars each. The amount of money the customer ended up spending on the car was around twice the value of the car.
My audi had an ECM crap out. Right before it happened I noticed that the fans would run after I would shut the car off. Happened twice before the car just didn't start again.
New engines are built "softer". Lots of aluminum and plastic. Parts wear out. Engines are getting way higher mileage these days. But they still can require some semi major repairs along the way. Cant wait to see what actually fixes this one.
What happened to the original ecm? Also if you looked at the faults they had a date of 2016. To me that means the clock was off and or the car had a dead battery.
Are the plastic chain guide wear the culprit for timing chain slack or the chain itself...and do you recommend any friction modifiers that would help the were in the chain guides?
Had something similar once my battery disconnected from the positive terminal wile driving. Rough idle, stalls when starting cold, over/under fueling, oxygen sensor faluts. Did a throttle adaptation all issues went away. Mk3 vr6 problems 🤣
I own a vw that I work on because no one around me can fix a normal vw let alone a modified one. I had at one point 6 parts to replace all because the idling fan died about four months after I got it. My car runs at 200 degrees so you need the idling fan for any driving under 45 mph and in my attempt to get home from work, since I only have a few minutes of city driving and the rest is highway, it heated up pretty hot. It has a range of 160 to 240 degrees and it hit 260 at one point in town. That caused a knock sensor to go out after I replaced the fan. I ended up replacing a coolant flange, pipe, a bunch of vacuum tubes, temperature sensor, and alternator. The knock sensor, temp sensor, and alternator all sit next to each other and the coolant flange fits in the block. The coolant pipe was the only thing I had to replace because it was stuck in place and I had to get it out to replace the temp gauge and knock sensor so it ended up getting damaged because of the four hour struggle I had with it. Let’s just say I hate my vw when it breaks. That being saying I have a b6 tfsi Passat which is similar to the cc but very different in a lot of ways.
I know that sometimes an ECM may have the wrong part number in the sticker but it could be flashed with the correct software for the car (or have a tuned software locked or unlocked). Some firmwares can be downloaded online and ECM hardware is mostly the same. Did you check the ECM part # displayed on the sticker matching the part # in VCDS? Can't you flash the spare ECM you have with the correct firmware instead of buying a new ECM? Flashing an ECM probably can be done on a bench and not on the car though...
yer know... I had a company golf wagon that did a lot of crazy things intermittently, fail to start, run erratically, stall. then would run perfectly for weeks and do it all again. It spent time in 3 different dealer shops, even had a new ecm fitted, then finally the 4th shop called me within hours and told me to pick it up, it ran perfectly forever after that - it was the knock sensor. This left me scratching my head, but I wasn't going to argue.
You know I worked on a Cadillac CTS not too long ago and determined the ecu was bad. My man had a replacement ecu in the trunk. Replaced and programmed and car started right up. Some cars you need to carry a spare tire some cars you need a spare ecu.
My 13 vr6 is just under 150k, still purring like a kitten lol. Had the first malfunction 2 weeks ago. Pcv valve diagram tore. Easy and cheap fix. Thankfully I'm pretty mechanically inclined. I originally planned on selling it once reaching 150k but used car prices are insane right now and this is still a great car. I plan on keeping it till at least 200k or more.
i wasnt working auto i was construction / ag equipment. they wouldnt spend money unless they absolutely had to. we would go to factory training on the new stuff coming out. unless there was a recall, it didnt start breaking for 2-3 years . by then you had forgot everything you learned cuz you didnt use it and you had two more years of new stuff confusing you. never had the correct tools unless you bought them yourself. so frustrating.
I have a 2007 Passat 3.6 4mo wagon that has some of these same symptoms. I definitely hear a little more timing chain noise than I like but fret the thought of pulling the huge ass auto banger out of it.
This exactly the point once I have golf 5 showing engine check light show boost pressure sensor error when I scan the whole car it showed canbus error back door light shorted I told Mechainice to change it he don’t listen I changed myself after this boost pressure sensor error go funny isn’t it 😆😆
FSI pump cam followers are notorious for wearing, had a friend that wanted to buy a MK5 GTI 6spd car, we test drove the car, and it ran like it needed fuel under load, being that the VW dealer was selling the car in "as is condition no warranty", we asked that they fix the problem, and we would consider buying the car. Long story short, the high pressure pump cam lobe was so worn out, it ate the camshaft lobe that runs the pump. They replaced both the camshaft that runs the pump, and the cam follower, and car runs like a champ now, my buddy has been really happy with his purchase, but I think it's getting close to that window when the cam follower needs to be swapped out for a new one before it consumes it self again....
🤞At 183xxx miles my 08 Passat VR6 4Motion Wagon is going strong. Yes it has issues but non of it is related to engine... That's right,a VW with no CEL.
BTW! Thank you all for 500k! it's pretty freaking awesome.
If my MKIV GLI shows up on your driveway, there's your answer, now I just need to find that blank check for you.
@@CheezeCracker LOL
A Golf Rallye
I also recently found a rusty razor in almost the same place under the hood in my daughters new 986 Porsche. Probably / hopefully from when the convertible roof was replaced before purchased.
Thanks for the great videos. 👍
Mk1 Caddy, clearly.
Let's be honest the Humble mechanic shop is the first legit shop this car was brought to.
Hahah
Spot on!
I realized the other ecu was bricked the second he mentioned fans at full power.
The humble knowledgeable honest mechanic 👍. Kick it down the road
@@TopDedCenter "Good just needs programming" lmao what a joke
Shop who replaced the ECMs..... "So any way, I started blasting"
Nice one haha!
Hi Charles,
As a power electronics specialist I love watching other specialists work in other disciplines.
And diagnostic work is fascinating.
So I watch watch you are doing and I am just nodding my head all the way.
I am enough of a petrol head to understand it, so it's great to follow along.
And here's the kicker, it takes years of experience to get a guy to where he is doing this kind of work.
You sharing this with your videos is mentoring the young generation of techs who need to learn.
I hope there's folks who benefit from you channel content as what you teach is not trivial.
Kind regards,
South Africa
THANK YOU!!!!
General Mechanic shops: "Volkswagens are shit!"
VW specialty shop: "No, they're pretty easy when you have the right tools and don't just shotgun everything."
I’d like to think all cars are that way. Lol
@@HumbleMechanic It's alright for a shop to branch out to a couple different brands of the same market domestic market. But general "we fix it all" shops should be avoided by everyone.
Jack of all trades(brands), master of none.
@@TopDedCenter That's not true especially when it come to diagnostic which is what this video is. Literally all manufacturers have the same or very similar circuit and system designs. Some are a little different. So what? You just learn how it works, if you didn't learn how something works then why even bother trying to fix anything? Your comment is really ignorant. We have a little bit more brain capacity than you think lmao we don't need your approval for how many different manufacturers we can handle.
An ignition coil on every car is the same. It's just a step up transformer just depends on how its controlled and where its located.
Spark plugs are the same
Engines internals are all the same makes no difference in diag
Injectors are all basically the same there's a couple different designs which aren't hard to learn
All potentiometers, thermistors, pressure sensors, speed sensors, sensors in general etc are exactly the same through all makes.
Networks are the same just sometimes slight differences that make no difference really in diag
The diagnostic routine in general is exactly the same for all makes
HVAC, EVAP, Suspension, TPMS, key fobs and basically everything else is all VERY similar or exactly the same through all makes.
A light bulb is a light bulb and you diagnose it as such even if it looks different. It's the same shit.
@@TopDedCenter I dont agree, good independent workshops are some of the best of all, the experience of varied makes and models tends to lead to a greater understanding of fault finding and diagnosis, that said, there are people who are specialists on a given make or model for good reason, but they are hard to find, even at main dealers for the brand in question.
Yep
Hackery like that is why I learned to work on my own cars.
Yepp
@Joseph Johnson until u cant replace the part because I know a lot of customers who say I can do it them self and then come to us to fix there mistake 😂
@Joseph Johnson that’s fine, little stuff like that is easy, but it’s when people try to do something else they don’t know how to do is kinda frustrating to repair.
Saaame. After mechanics screwed up so many simple jobs for me and my family, I was sick of it.
Exactly my position now. Ive always worked on my cars unless they were new and the dealer did the service for free like toyota(24 months free service). Well after my first service at 5000 miles they left a lug-nut off. Im doing all the service myself now.
I feel like so many shops and dealer service centers are just part changers these days instead of having quality diagnostics. I think it comes back to the whole flat rate pay system
cannot agree more...
Absolutely. As a dealer tech I couldn't agree more.
100%. Customer do not want to pay for diag. The constructor do not want to pay for diag. I got out of the auto industry 6 months ago because of this.
As a apprentice mechanic thrown to the wolves....your not wrong
Its both the manufacturers fault as well as the shops. 6 years experience here.
Cars are becoming so horrendously complicated, that the average shop/ joe has absolutely no chance of having quality understanding of any components/ modules the vehicles carry. Training is extremely expensive and time consuming, so 95% of shops will just throw techs at the wind in hopes of landing successful/ quick diagnostics. Flat rate only increases this issue tenfold.
My god what a mess! Videos like this really make me appreciate the simplicity and durability of my little old Toyota!
I love the simplicity of my 2005 Citroën. I'd hate to have to take the car to the expensive shops every time something is wrong with it, which luckily hardly ever happens anyway.
Even the wipers are on wrong 😅
Wipers...looks at that coolant bottle! Overfilled much? LOL. I don't even want to know what kind of mix/concoction of coolants is in there either 😂
This was great, I loved following the thought process, use of VCDS, and watching your next steps.
I will probably have to spend all the next Sunday pausing this video every 10 seconds to translate to my dad what you are saying. This is awesome! He’s on his fourth VW Golf and It would be so great to have mechanics like you around here. You are in another level!
Love these types of videos we need more of these
Thanks! I do too.
Wow this is exactly what i went through 3 weeks ago lol. Helping a friend fix her 1.6 Fiesta RSI. Ended up having to rewire the whole car... Added a new standalone ECU. Then after all that it started up for the first time in 3 years and driving properly now.
Great video.
Man, it never ceases to amaze me how knowledgeable you are and how efficient you are with your troubleshooting. My brother is the mechanic in our family and he was the one that put me on to your channel. He convinced me to pick up a mk6.5 GLI which i was a bit nervous about considering how complex vw/audi vehicles are, but the more i watch your channel the more at ease i feel about it lol
Thank you!!
I have a passat 2.0t that I've been trying to work on and your videos, as far as the Volkswagen content I've seen, have been so helpful in my understanding of what I'm doing! Thanks so much for your content!
I love my 2010 CC, thanks to your videos, im hoping to stay on top of good maintenance and repairs, i never want another car, i love it! 👍
Finally nice to see someone on TH-cam do something with the 3.6.
Couldn't sleep because the car had an issue and you wanted to do more diagnosis to figure out the problem. True love for the art.
Looking forward to the next video on this one, it’s always “fun” to see mix and match parts in a non purpose built car. Cross referencing part numbers is critical to ensure compatibility, always!
The shop I worked at about a decade ago had a Blue B5 A4 cabriolet with the 3.0L 30V V6 come in for the Tbelt and ancillaries, a slight miss that previous shops and us thought was coil packs. We used the cam locking tools and they wouldn't quite fit. Turns out the previous shop that had replaced the Tbelt had it off by a tooth or so, the Cam pulley and interface are a wedge not a woodruff key and can therefore be essentially infinitely positioned, anyways. Base timing was the issue. The codes thrown indicated a bad cam sensor or coil packs on certain cylinders. Thanks for taking the time to document your process.
You're the go-to VW/Audi tech TH-cam channel. Thanks bud
Thank you!
@@HumbleMechanic You're one of the good go-to's for maintenance in general too. I have a Scion and Dodge and still pick a lot of things up - I'm not 100% sure, but you may have been where I learned cutting an empty oil quart up to make an economical oil funnel... 😂
THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOO! MUCH! I watched MANY of your vids.. and on my 2015 GTI w/90K I noticed a bit of a 'stutter' when idling.. .. dealer said it was a fuel system issue I spent $3000.. stutter DID NOT GO AWAY.. watched a ton of you vids.. I replaced all 4 coil injectors.. FIXED THE PROBLEM.. now in a fight with dealer.. THANK YOU!!! If you are ever in Delray Beach, FL Beer is on me!
Great video! Im tech for VW, and I really enjoy how you break things down and explain. I wish I had more folks like you at my work.. learned more in this video than I likely will all week unfortunately
New subscriber here - from Australia. I do roadside breakdowns and face many tears from members, many heartaches, many headaches, much head scratching, and some misdiagnoses but also many special victories and jubilation. You have a 15 to 30-minute window to diagnose a no-start, all while on the side of the road, often in poor weather and usually with traffic screaming past, and an anxious member who won't shut up who wants a definitive answer as to EXACTLY what is the problem. If presented with the car in this video, I will tow and ship it to your workshop dude! 😎
Hi Charles, great channel 👍
My Wife has a 2010 golf 1.6tdi cayc with an automatic transmission. I’m an ok mechanic. I’m going to be refreshing the entire suspension this summer and I am not as worried now about starting it.
Keep up the good work 👍
Hello from England
Now I don't feel bad at all. I had a cc with pretty much the same issues and i was stumped. I put 3 different ecu's in it and it just would not cooperate. This one came in with chain noise so i replaced the chain and all the associated components and i suggested to the customer that he should have the hpfp done also. He of course said no so after i got everything back together the timing issues were fixed but it still had this weird stumble on acceleration. Felt like insufficient fuel. Damn those fuel pumps all together.. Finally i got the right computer in it and it ran alot better than when it came in but it wasn't perfect. The customer was really happy with it so i gave him a list of potential issues and said God bless..
So beautifully professional. Charles is the kind of boss I would love to work for. Thanks so much for this (all) video(s).
Bloody hell. I never knew modern car issue diagnosis could be so technical and complicated. That mechanic is performing some wizard level work there 👌
I've seen so many mechanics replace ecm's and not one have I seen that fixed the issue.
It is super rare that is the issue
Unless it’s a Dodge Grand Caravan.
Or a Mk3 vw.
Or a 1.8t Mk4 that shorted the o2 sensor
@@fastinradfordable What a coincidence, I am just about to do o2 sensors on my MK4 1.8t.
@@HumbleMechanic Not if its a Chrysler. I replace 10 ECM on Chrysler vs any other make. Ford is second, but at least theirs are from known issues (usually coil driver melts along with a coil). Chrysler just have bad Eeprom and will brick themselves from wrong checksum data. Also issues with trans control on all the ECM/TCM combo PCMs. Routan will get them soon if engine control is mopar too, just wait.
Wow Charles, congrats are in order. 500,000 subs, well deserved sir.
Thanks so much!
This is a perfect example of the mess that can be made by parts swapping. I have been seeing this a lot over the last several weeks. These are cars I walk away from because the shop/customer can’t afford my time to find everything that is wrong or fix the problems they caused to then get us to a point of actually diagnosing the original problem.
We had a high mileage Benz (220,000km) come into our dealership courtesy an over enthusiastic buyer who purchased it as at auction as 'non starting' (but someone had restored the body/interior to mint). Weeks of hair pulling by my mechanics later i asked if the car had its original ECM, frantic nodding in the affirmative. Then I asked if the vehicle had its original engine... light bulbs went off all over the workshop... yep, had been engine swapped for later, incompatible model. We sold the vehicle as a parts car to somene who had the same model with good mechanicals but lousy body. Not worth our time to fix.
U could also easily backprobe the cranck and cam sensor and check timing whit a scope. I love diagnostics jobs when they come in. Its challenging and you learn something everyday.
watching vids like this make me so happy I bought a base model Golf with 2.5 and manual trans.
i think my ABS module died, every light is on the dash but it still drives fine, so ef it.
I am so glad that I settled on Lexus when purchasing a car. I had looked at Audi, VW they have so many reliability issues that I really do not need to experience. There is a lot that other manufacturers could learn from in build quality and sound engineering from Lexus. They are not however as good at keeping a mechanic employed !!!
yeah. VW even has a tamper-proof 'leash' attached to the radiator, due to some ozone-scrubbing patent they took out & make the purchasers pay for. Shop unknowingly tampers with something in the vicinity, repair light triggers. Ridiculous engineering. I prefer their cheating diesels, at least those were somewhat innovative. : )
The VAG group is the most race successful automaker in motorsports... Reliability is part of the formula in winning especially in endurance racing..... The point is that the VW group knows how to make something reliable, it's whether they WANT to make it reliable for the consumer........ And unfortunately they choose not to...... And that goes for all automakers..........
@@MiguelGarcia-vj7oo If they put their "reliable" race machine on the street to be driven day in and day out for thousands and thousands of miles it would be less reliable than the production car and require much more attention to keep it running. These race cars require very high maintenance and constant attention by service technicians to keep them running. So whether they can make a reliable vehicle for every day use is questionable.
Regarding gunk on valves, on my mk5 gti I had a misfire on cylinder 4 and wanted to see if cleaning the gunk will make some difference. Cleaned it, took the decision to mount everything back as I was really curious, car was running the same. Only afterwards I swapped the injector 4 with number 3 and got the misfire code on cylinder 3.
So after changing the faulty injector with an OEM one, car was running smooth, especially at cold start. So yes, in total there were three mounting and demounting operations, lots of effort, but at least I diagnosed it step by step.
It’s good to know for sure!
Charles, check the 3.6 upper front most timing chain guide. With the HPFP it causes a lot more wear on the guides and they commonly fail at this mileage and cause the HPFP to skip timing. I'd be willing to bet the guide is cracked in two places and the mid section is still bolted on. The fuel pump skips timing first and the rest of the motor stays in time but has the potential to skip timing and blow up.
There is a guy that specializes in VW, Audi, BMW, etc. His name is Hunter Gaskin. He has a shop in Jacksonville Florida. The shop is named Southside Euro. I can guarantee he would fix the problem with this car. That guy is the best to ever do it. Genius mechanic when it comes to anything Euro.
Was in the auto repair business for years, mostly Bosch systems. The first thing I did when I got a car in the shop with problems was demand ALL the "old" parts, reinstalled them and then chased down the real problem. It was rarely what had been replaced.
wish i knew how to fix cars. its fun if you know everything. i took a manifold off vw and and said nope, i'm not fixing it myself. but i learned alot just taking the manifold off cuz it taught me variety of components in the engine such as timing chain, purge valve, fuel pressure, coolant hoses, valve cover, etc, etc....different sensors everywhere.
love my 2011 CC vr6 4-mo Glad to see you mucking around with a 3.6.
This video makes this shade tree mechanic feel pretty humble-I just found out that there is a whole lot I don't know about newer cars...LOL...
3.6VR6 = loveliest V6 in the VAG platform. Especially if you have the BWS model!
It seems that those other shops are the same shops that send only the best cars to South Main Auto. It would be a good video for you to do a collaboration with Eric O.
Dangerous beard hanging near those crazy fast-spinning ventilators. Quite useful tips: scan, search, test. Sometimes we start by the most complex angle. From an engineer POV starting from 1 rather than 10 could make the difference.
Great video Charles!
You know way more about diagnosing "mechanical issues" than probably 90% of VW mechanics, let alone general repair shops
I too like to keep razor blades near my wire harness. You never know when you're gonna need it.
Great job Charles, its hard when You are not starting the fix at square one, congrats and very well done on 500,000 subscribers Sir:):)
Thank you!!!
I do really enjoy the though process and the professionalism that you use. The explanations are clear and concise as well as the logic that you use. I did automotive and locomotive repair work and found that logic in a great deal of mechanics was something that was direly lacking.
Awesome video the sound, picture and editing quality were spot on! Thanks for the ride along for the diagnostic tree that you used!
Thanks so much!
Wow! You are THOROUGH! New (2 years) to the VW scene. 09 CC VR6. Love the car, but she is a bit long in the tooth. Hopefully you have more videos featuring the 3.6. I gotta get a scantool. I imagine that's a pro set-up (and expensive) you have there. Any recommendations for a newbie with a VR6 that's got about 150K on it? Thanks for making these videos! And any specific advice you may have.. .
Love the videos. It is so hard to explain problems like that to both the customer and service advisor. There is no plug the scanner in get all the answers in .5. Thanks for all your hard work.
Exactly!!! I’m so glad you guys like these videos. They are fun to make.
People shouldn’t own things they aren’t capable of remotely understanding.
Ignorance in this day and age is a choice.
And if u choose not to.
And want it a certain way.
U force it upon someone else.
Someone who could otherwise live a simple and sustainable life.
Think about it.
Man I love these videos. You put my mechanic to shame with your knowledge.
Wow! Excellent video as always. Some similar issues to my Touareg, every time I got my car back it was worse. The last shop admitted they broke something so refused to charge me. At least mine has the right ECM though.😅
Just upgrade it too AWD...😎👊🏻its that easy.🤣
HAHAHA
If the ECM wasn't smoked. But it is.
I would say you have a bad high pressure fuel pump, you should have something closer to 40 bar at idle, 6 bar is tank pressure. A stretched chain on a fsi vr usually causes a fuel pressure malfunction fault and if you check it at idle you end up reading about 120 bar because the pulses of the pump and injectors are not lining up. Being the regulator is working I would lean more towards a pump also the 3.6 uses a roller and not a flat tappet like the bpy so wear isn’t usually an issue
Love watching your videos! Not consider myself a mechanic but I love to work on cars. Now my 2004 Nissan Altima with 270,000miles is giving me a headache trying to solve the problem.. already took it to 5 mechanics and they want me to replace parts that I already did.. wish me luck
How to become a better technician:
watch all of Charles's videos
🙏🙏🙏🙏
Very, very good trouble shooting.
Always learning something from you.
By the way, last week, finally I swapped my hemi engine of my Challenger/Sommercar.
It has metallshavings since Year 1 / 2016
Now, its a brandnew engine from mopar, I did it by myself in an garage here in cold germany :-) (Wintertime)
Thank you!! AWESOME on the swap!
@@HumbleMechanic
Thank you charles, that means a lot for me !
Sometimes, i am smilling.
You ordering parts from germany for your VWs and I'm from the US....... :-)
V/R
Andreas
Ah, the venerable BLV 3.6. Over the years, the only problems that have been routine are worn high pressure pumps...and aged timing chains. Solid engine.
For the customer, it's a big step to separate the transmission and rebuild the timing chain drive. But, if the rest of the CC is in good shape, it's a good investment.
The most fun BLV find is rare, it was offered on the little EOS. No replacement for displacement, as the gearheads will tell you.
i love this kind of video, the diagnosis is half the fun!
Great video! Love VAG group cars!
Having a vw jump to different shops being incorrectly diagnosed and having parts thrown at it seems all too common. I bought an mk5 brm and had a maf code, it was also spooling the turbo until cavitation constantly. Looks like one shop followed the owners manual and removed the MAF fuse. The next shop replaced the turbo (??), and replaced the map sensor with a common rail one. I found a service manual. Replaced the fuse and the map sensor with the right one and it ran perfect after that! Poor guy had a bill of like 4 grand which was totally not needed
I had one with alot of electronic codes for different systems (Golf mk5). Turned out to be the in tank fuelpump relay module being shorted to ground but it also caused the pump to not turn off with the key. But those electronics can be fickle. Had codes for everything connected to canbus.
I just stumbled upon this video again and decided to watch it. How can you go wrong with watching Charles? It dawned on me on why I say "It's unhappy, or "Super unhappy noise", or similar...its because of Charles, lol.
Hahahha that’s awesome
Charles is so frustrated his beard is splitting
HAHA It has a mind of it's own
Just got an 09 jetta 2.5 for $750. Trying to do this all myself is pretty difficult. Got codes p2401 and p2177. Havent found a direct answer on what is going on. So far ive changed the pcv diaphragm and the evap purge n80 valve. Going to get the codes reset and go from there. It runs drives and stops great. I also changed the oil which was really dirty and probably 8 quarts of oil in it. Also fixed the vacuum booster oil leak. Really excited about this car and hopefully dont have much to do. After i get the light off going to do the ac and get it legal
But how would I, average Joe, know what parts should my car have from the factory? Anyway congrats on 500k subs. Always good to see a video from HM.
Its not easy! Even with knowing Paul personally and making the call, we had to weed through some nonsense.
I have just finished working on a Holden Trax (Chevy Trax) that consistently threw a MAP sensor code at idle, vehicle was also hard to start and was blowing black smoke at idle along with rough running. It had been to various shops and had the ECM on the front seat as an indicator. A quick check of the MAP sensor circuit and operation on the data stream showed it was working ok except the reading was wrong, around 4inHG at idle manifold vacuum. A bit further investigation uncovered that the car had a cylinder head replaced with an exchange item in the past, checking the part numbers on the cams and the head showed the correct part number for the head but the cams were for a Holden Cruze. The Cruze had a different intake cam and phaser and the intake timing was out by 30 degrees retarded. Swapping the original cams into the new head involved removing the head and having the valve seats cut and the valves tipped off to get the valve lash spec right for the original cams, as lash adjusters were ex-Korea, 8 weeks away and 50 dollars each. The amount of money the customer ended up spending on the car was around twice the value of the car.
this will be a test for all your experience years as a mechanic ... good luck
You will get fuel pressure related codes because the wrong ecm is in there. Once the correct ecm is installed it should clear out a few things
My audi had an ECM crap out. Right before it happened I noticed that the fans would run after I would shut the car off. Happened twice before the car just didn't start again.
That’s a common thing with ECM failure. Fans always on
There are plenty of corrado's out there that would love that 3.6 VR! And some detailed build threads on VWVortex ;)
New engines are built "softer". Lots of aluminum and plastic. Parts wear out.
Engines are getting way higher mileage these days. But they still can require some semi major repairs along the way.
Cant wait to see what actually fixes this one.
The errors in the ECM were dated 2015 with a mileage of 300k+ That crimped connection looked like a whole lot of trouble.
Thanks for the update on the white wookie!
Great videos. I am looking at a 2012 CC (4 cyl), do they suffer from the same issues as my 09 B6 Passat?
Cleaning up after a parts cannon goes off is often a challenge 🤣
What happened to the original ecm? Also if you looked at the faults they had a date of 2016. To me that means the clock was off and or the car had a dead battery.
No idea! Lol yeah the date was off.
Are the plastic chain guide wear the culprit for timing chain slack or the chain itself...and do you recommend any friction modifiers that would help the were in the chain guides?
Great presentation. Nice to see honesty. 👍
Another lovely vid cheers, and the "phone call" was great to watch.
Fantastic video! Your work gets better and better as you make more of them! ~Dave
Thank you
Had something similar once my battery disconnected from the positive terminal wile driving. Rough idle, stalls when starting cold, over/under fueling, oxygen sensor faluts. Did a throttle adaptation all issues went away. Mk3 vr6 problems 🤣
I own a vw that I work on because no one around me can fix a normal vw let alone a modified one. I had at one point 6 parts to replace all because the idling fan died about four months after I got it. My car runs at 200 degrees so you need the idling fan for any driving under 45 mph and in my attempt to get home from work, since I only have a few minutes of city driving and the rest is highway, it heated up pretty hot. It has a range of 160 to 240 degrees and it hit 260 at one point in town. That caused a knock sensor to go out after I replaced the fan. I ended up replacing a coolant flange, pipe, a bunch of vacuum tubes, temperature sensor, and alternator. The knock sensor, temp sensor, and alternator all sit next to each other and the coolant flange fits in the block. The coolant pipe was the only thing I had to replace because it was stuck in place and I had to get it out to replace the temp gauge and knock sensor so it ended up getting damaged because of the four hour struggle I had with it. Let’s just say I hate my vw when it breaks. That being saying I have a b6 tfsi Passat which is similar to the cc but very different in a lot of ways.
Hi good evening!
I have some problems getting on 1st and 2nd gear golf mk4 1.6 16v.
All linkage rods replaced already.
I know that sometimes an ECM may have the wrong part number in the sticker but it could be flashed with the correct software for the car (or have a tuned software locked or unlocked). Some firmwares can be downloaded online and ECM hardware is mostly the same. Did you check the ECM part # displayed on the sticker matching the part # in VCDS? Can't you flash the spare ECM you have with the correct firmware instead of buying a new ECM?
Flashing an ECM probably can be done on a bench and not on the car though...
yer know... I had a company golf wagon that did a lot of crazy things intermittently, fail to start, run erratically, stall. then would run perfectly for weeks and do it all again. It spent time in 3 different dealer shops, even had a new ecm fitted, then finally the 4th shop called me within hours and told me to pick it up, it ran perfectly forever after that - it was the knock sensor. This left me scratching my head, but I wasn't going to argue.
Wow!
@@HumbleMechanic I know right...
You know I worked on a Cadillac CTS not too long ago and determined the ecu was bad. My man had a replacement ecu in the trunk. Replaced and programmed and car started right up. Some cars you need to carry a spare tire some cars you need a spare ecu.
My 13 vr6 is just under 150k, still purring like a kitten lol. Had the first malfunction 2 weeks ago. Pcv valve diagram tore. Easy and cheap fix. Thankfully I'm pretty mechanically inclined. I originally planned on selling it once reaching 150k but used car prices are insane right now and this is still a great car. I plan on keeping it till at least 200k or more.
My trust issues started when I got my Saturn, back without my green valve caps.
*Rip nitrogen gas*
i wasnt working auto i was construction / ag equipment. they wouldnt spend money unless they absolutely had to. we would go to factory training on the new stuff coming out. unless there was a recall, it didnt start breaking for 2-3 years . by then you had forgot everything you learned cuz you didnt use it and you had two more years of new stuff confusing you. never had the correct tools unless you bought them yourself. so frustrating.
Congrats on 500k subs Charles 👍
I have a 2007 Passat 3.6 4mo wagon that has some of these same symptoms. I definitely hear a little more timing chain noise than I like but fret the thought of pulling the huge ass auto banger out of it.
Great video, thank you. Do you have any videos on replacing a charcoal canister on a 2010 VW Beetle because it is impossible to fill up the gas tank?
**MY FAVORITE ECM IS A HOLLEY 750 DOUBLE PUMPER**
So I couldn't sleep last night so I ripped the car apart like a mad scientist... 🤣 Been there done that.... A little too much... 🤣😣
Hahah glad I’m not alone
Well it sucks when there is a lot of embedded software (in the ECM) on a car and you don't know how it works.
This exactly the point once I have golf 5 showing engine check light show boost pressure sensor error when I scan the whole car it showed canbus error back door light shorted I told Mechainice to change it he don’t listen I changed myself after this boost pressure sensor error go funny isn’t it 😆😆
FSI pump cam followers are notorious for wearing, had a friend that wanted to buy a MK5 GTI 6spd car, we test drove the car, and it ran like it needed fuel under load, being that the VW dealer was selling the car in "as is condition no warranty", we asked that they fix the problem, and we would consider buying the car. Long story short, the high pressure pump cam lobe was so worn out, it ate the camshaft lobe that runs the pump. They replaced both the camshaft that runs the pump, and the cam follower, and car runs like a champ now, my buddy has been really happy with his purchase, but I think it's getting close to that window when the cam follower needs to be swapped out for a new one before it consumes it self again....
Unsolved puzzle are a good way to spend extra free time
🤞At 183xxx miles my 08 Passat VR6 4Motion Wagon is going strong. Yes it has issues but non of it is related to engine... That's right,a VW with no CEL.
My 2.5L 2005 MK5 has similar issues. This happened a month after I had 9 things fixed on the vehicle by Vw Dealer.