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Occasionally the car won’t start. Not electrical - battery good starter good. It usually (always) happens when trying to start the car within a few minutes or hour of having recently run - like won’t start after stopping to fill gas or won’t start after driving to eat lunch. It will start if left alone for many hours. It seems to start when the engine is cranked for 10 or more seconds and the accelerator is pushed and held to the floor. When it starts there is a strong smell of fuel - indicating that the engine was flooded. The “accelerator to the floor” solution does not always work and usually does not work the first time.

This was happening on my GTI 1.8t. The problem was that the fuel pump connector had a crack in it so there was fuel leaking onto the top part of the gas tank. I had my vw shop replace the fuel pump and it was free since there was a fuel pump recall that affected my model. A new pump is around $100.00 US dollars and the repair is fairly easy to do so a shop should only charge you about 1hr of labor maximum.

Hi, I just had the exact same problem, I went to the local Wolksw dealer and the diagnose was that the COOLANT TEMPERATURE SENSOR had to be replaced. The diagnose cost was $120, more $240 for the part and labor. Good luck!

Hi there, I have the same exact symptoms on my 2004 Passat 2.0 , car not starting, smell of fuel and sometimes while driving at normal speed car would stall, press the fuel and no response at all, until 10 secs stalling in the middle of the highway then the car would get its energy back. List below of items changed: MAF sensor no improvement Spark plugs no improvement Fuel filter no improvement Radiator, water pump, timing belt, fan no improvement At last fuel pump no improvement I did my research and thought of the fuel relay, but my mechanic said if any problem with relay It should come up on the computer scan which it didn’t Coolant temperature sensor was replaced today 7 February and things look ok till now. Don’t know if the problem is solved. But car is driving well. Will update if any changes

99.9% I’m sure is the fuel pump relay. Even if you’re getting the “click” when putting your finger on the relay it may be low on voltage to the pump. Remove the relay which is marked with 372 and clean the burnt pins with sandpaper until nice and shiny metal and reinstall it. I did this and it works fine.

I’ve had the fuel relay, fuel filter, and the fuel pump replaced- all of those . I do not have a starting problem now on my 2002 VW 4- motion passat. I have over 200,000 k on my car. The fuel pump was cracked and the fuel relay worn out. The fuel filter was dirty and clogged, car couldn’t breath. It was time to replace them.

Most of you all problems seem to point to the Crankshaft Position Sensor/Engine speed sensor. It is a common problem with the 2000-2004 VW Passat. There is no way of stopping this sensor from failing it will have to be replaced eventually.

Can someone please tell me where the fuel pump is on an 02 Passat Wagon 2.8 I cannot find the fuel pump under the rear seat

I bought a 2005 vw Passat 2 years ago, it has been a great car but I had to replace the timing belt OBDII codes. took off the cover and this is what I saw. The camshaft position sensor was rotated counter cloclwise and was being held in by 1 bolt that was just barley catching the outside ear of the sensor? I replaced the Timing belt water pump tensioner and roller. and realigned everything to TDC. I went ahead and replaced the cam sensor and crank sensor to be sure I didn’t have tear back into it again for a while. I also did new spark plugs and a new turbo charger. then put it all back together. Now It only starts on the third or fourth crank and I am getting a OBDII code P0341 I checked the plug and harness to the cam sensor its not burnt or cracked anywhere. I am really not sure where to go from here?

Had same issue with 1999 GTI for four years. After multiple failures at different mechanics I finally took it to a dealer. Took them a month and a half to find the issue: new clutch sensor and ignition relay switch. Problem solved.

I’ll repost what I did already. Had the intermittent start issue for about four years. After a supertech at a dealer kept my car nearly two months, he was able to find the problem after disecting the car part by part:

  1. new clutch sensor
  2. ignition relay switch Problem solved and absolutely no issues.

For me it was an easy fix. I decided to start with crankshaft sensor. This fixed the issue right away. Don’t spend 80 bucks at autozone for the part. Ebay has Bosh for $20.

Hello. I have a vw Passat 2010 fsi model. I recently discovered it won’t start when very cold & after driving it for some time, it won’t start. And I noticed that the interior of the car smells of fuel. How can I fix the problem? Thanks

I also like the ECT sensor but also for future readers, leaking fuel injectors internally into the cylinders after you turn off the engine will cause this same problem. If you can attach a fuel pressure gauge and monitor fuel pressure when you turn off the engine, I think it will drop kind of fast, on a good car it should last for a long time. For a bad ECT sensor, the computer will try to deliver too much fuel thinking the engine is cold, the temp gauge on the dash and the temp to the computer are different sensors so the dash gauge will probably read correctly all the time. Relays can be an issue but just swap same style relays around to test for that. Trying to start with the gas pedal all the way to the floor is called Clear Flood Mode, but not all cars have this strategy built into the computer but it still works for flooded cars.

I had the same problem with my vw 02 v6 30v. After I changed both engine and gearbox, it gives hard start and the mechanic blamed the fuel pump and spark plugs, after reading through I went and checked the crankshaft sensors only to see that it’s loose, I just put some packing and problem solved.

If you’re car will start cold but it won’t start warm. Might be engine temp sensor. Temp sensor tells the car to send more fuel cold and less as the engine temp rises. My car had this problem and only had p0343. Temp sensor solved the problem.

I have a 2001 VW Passat if it’s warm or cold it tends not to start . I could drive it to the store and parked it come out 15 minutes later it might start with no problem or not or I could drive it 5 different places and it’ll start every time . Some mornings it starts right up other times it hesitates have to keep trying and then it starts if lucky. It is a toss up ! Could be cold or hot weather not started for a day or drove off and on all day, you never know if you are going to go or not. It is never the same saturation. HELP!