My 2000 2.5 V6 TDI Passat has just died.. was doing 60-70 and went to change gear and the engine cut out, tried to restart and its just cranking over and over. Did have a message on the display and the glow plug light on when i was coasting something about management but didnt get the whole message, wasnt on for long.

The recovery guy reckons it might be the crank sensor.

The cambelt should have loads of miles and time left before it goes.

Im at a loss, probably going to have to get it looked at but thought id fish for ideas/suggestions, so... got any?

Cheers

ive heard the connector plug can work off the diesel pump on these engines, worth a look.

I had strnge problems with my 96 passat 1.9 TDI when my alternator started to hav bad brushes, ABS and belt light lit up clock went to zero and tripmeter zeroed.
Crank sensor seems possible but check chip box for bad earthing.
If it cranks over easier than normal like spinning faster than normal it still could be cambelt.

did it spin ok when you spun it ?

if it sounded normal then its (most lightly) not going to be any of the importnat belts...

...but to me, it happening when you changed gear points to belts

theres no rattles or bangs or anything, just seems a little quicker when spinning over but that could be my imagination

i just typed 2.5 tdi just died into google and this came up

http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/showthread.php?t=31838

heh cheers, doesnt look good from that id expect to hear some noise from pumps before failure but i guess maybe not

When you attempt to crank is there any smell of fuel from the exhaust, or if you slacken off one of the injectors is any bleeding out?

Welcome to the world of stupid electronic control on diesels.

Electronics - what makes diesels unreliable.

Id suggest you get a VAGCOM cable and software from wherever. Youre going to need it.

Have you had a good check over of it yet?

I had cam gear go on a volvo and it spun like a sewingmachine when I cranked.

not had a chance to have a look yet, going to try getting tomorrow off to check it out

had a think and what happened was.. doing 60 in 4th, full throttle and thought i hit the rev limiter so changed to 5th, that was when i noticed the engine wasnt running so no idea yet, will check injectors for fuel and belt etc when i can.

Could be many things, Id be worried about the belt, you say plenty of time and miles to go but, when was it done, what was done, water pump? guide? tensioner? Injection pump belt? And by who!
VW recommend, check at 20,000miles, replace at 80,000miles or 4 years if mileage not reached.

so it probably happend before you changed gear then ?

guessing you can take it past 60 in 4th and that the loss of power you thought was the rev limiter was actually the enging cutting out ?

yeah the engine cut out before i put the clutch in for a gear change, there should have been some revs left before the limiter

coming to you live now from.... outside my house.

Got a bunch of covers off and can see that the cambelt, injector pump belt and aux belt all look fine, can see diesel in a clear pipe that was covered before, just taken the battery off in a futile attempt to reset whatever is running the thing but im out of ideas really, going to crack off an injector and see if its fueling in a bit

unbolted one of the injectors and it dribbled onto the camcover when i turned it over, not sure whats normal there tho

im all out of ideas now