Engine only started for a few seconds and keep shutting down. 132 TSI MY16

[rave75]

Hi everyone,

I have a passat MY16 that suddenly stopped and every time I started the engine, it was on for a couple of seconds and stopped. Road side assistance couldn't find anything so it was towed. This happened a few months ago and turns out I had no fuel, even though it says my range is 50km. Dealer said the re-calibrated the fuel indicator.

It happened again last Friday, so I called road side assist to bring some fuel but it didn't fixed it, it was towed again.
This morning VW dealer tried to start the engine and it is all fine. Their explanation was the car had no fuel and even after I put some fuel, "it takes a while" for the fuel to get filtered and reach the engine, they also pointed out that the car is stopped in an inclined road which was why it took longer. I had to wait for 2.5 hours for the tow truck (after road side put some fuel in my car) and tried repeatedly to start it and it didn't work.

I am not happy with their explanation and I am wondering if anyone has experienced this before? Assuming that the car was without fuel, after you put the fuel in, will it take longer for the engine to be able to start because the car was stopped at an inclined road?



Thanks in advance!

[Hillbilly]

Fill the tank and dont run it so low Whats wrong with you If the light comes on Fill it .

Otherwise it may have a one way valve in the fuel line that is stuck open and its draining back on a hill.

[ian]

Never let the fuel get down to nearly empty , All the accumulated Rubbish in the tank will be sucked into the fuel lines ,

[Hillbilly]

Never let the fuel get down to nearly empty , All the accumulated Rubbish in the tank will be sucked into the fuel lines ,

Rubbish (pardon the pun) the filter will do its job whether the tank is full or nearly empty but as it doesnt sit right on the bottom of the tank and car is on a hill it might not pick up the residual fuel if its really low. A sensible person doesnt run it right out and should fill up at anything under a 1/4 reading

[rave75]

My bad, the fuel light was just on at 70km, I was on the way to dinner and petrol station afterwards when the car stopped. I will make sure to fill at 1/4 tank from now on.

[Lucas_R]

This is quite common in modern cars - my brother had a similar issue in his Mazda RX-8 and my mother in law had a similar issue in a Ford Falcon....both cars were running out of fuel despite the gauge showing there was still fuel in the tank. This is precisely the reason why i never let my cars fuel tank get low before filling up.

[VW Convert]

I had a similar issue with my Jetta some years ago, let it get low on fuel, parked outside my home facing uphill, wouldn't start, let it roll back a little way and turned it at right angles to the road and it started. Drove up to the nearest servo and filled it up, not a problem after.

I find the low fuel warning very unreliable, it comes on at 50 Km but I found that I could drive 10 Km and it would show 20 Km to empty. As others have said, better to avoid the issue by not letting it get to low.

Cheers

George

[rave75]

Not sure if this is related, but now I am hearing weird vibration noise from the engine bay when the car rpm is around 1800-2000rpm and only if the car is downhill. Uphill and flat are okay. So if I stop at a downhill road, put P and rev the engine, the noise is always present at those rpm.

Another trip to the dealer I guess.

[ylzhao]

its no good to your pump, gonna cause lots of issue in future.