engine shutting down suddenly while driving

7037 Views 30 Replies 11 Participants Last post by rmgillis23, 29 d ago

barrypf123

Discussion Starter · Aug 31, 2021

My 2008 EOS has now shut down twice while driving in the last 10 days, once on the highway at 60 MPH or so and once last week while sitting at a red light on the way to and a block from your dealership. In both cases, the shutdown was sudden and no engine warning lights came on. Dash gages all went dark but some electronics continued to work -- windows, turn signals, no power steering or brakes. After some time (5 minutes the first time and about 20 or so minutes the second) it restarted. The second time was a block from the dealer and once I got it there, they ran all the scans and tests, and found nothing, no codes or anything else wrong. This is obviously a serious safety issue and the car is really undriveable. I read some earlier posts about this and wonder if anyone has any recent info or ideas. I love the car otherwise.

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BostonEOS

· #2 · Sep 1, 2021 (Edited)

YIKES!!! Thats scary, especially on the Highway....

So your saying the dealership scanned the car with their VW scanner, and NO error codes were found?

Do you have ODB11 or VCDS? To scan the car periodically for codes?

IF I had to guess, something connected to the engine electrical system. Which explains what kept working, and what didn't. The details, to diagnose, would require a skilled mechanic and VW diagnostics....

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BostonEOS

· #5 · Sep 1, 2021

barrypf123 said:
Thanks to you both. Yes, we have stopped driving the car. I had it toed to an independent mechanic I've used in the past, and he couldn't find anything either. I consider the car unsafe to drive and it sits in my driveway for now.

And yes, the dealership receipt, for which they did not charge me, said they ran diagnostics and "found no static or sporadic codes stored. Tested battery and alternator, both pass." I asked the service manager what next and he said nothing comes to mind but they could run more diagnostic tests which could get expensive. I'd have to have more confidence in likely positive results to proceed.

I do not have any devices to scan the car.

Here's my basic advice.

a) Dont drive it on the highway, except maybe in the right (slow) lane.

b) Get something called ODBeleven from Amazon ($65) which you can plug into your ODB port, and get diagnostics data off.

Keep checking the car, for error codes, using ODBeleven, and drive the car only in "city" scenarios, till you can figure this out.

Now if it were me, I would drive it within the city, on short trips etc. Otherwise there's no way to get further data on whats wrong, and you're pretty much stuck with a paperweight.

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BostonEOS

· #9 · Sep 2, 2021

barrypf123 said:
Thanks, all. The car dies by going totally dead, one second it's running flawlessly and then nothing. Re the dash, the gages all stop working but the display in the center was still on. As you note, no power steering or brakes or AC.

Maybe of interest -- it's dead right now in my driveway. Hasn't been run since Monday afternoon. The lights come on nice and bright when the key is inserted and turned and the center display is on, but the engine makes no move to start.

Ok, so when this happens, what still works?

That works help figuring out where the fault lies, by understanding what's still got power and ruling that out...

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BostonEOS

· #16 · Sep 24, 2021

barrypf123 said:
Well I finally got around to replacing the switch and it worked great for 24 hours -- took it out for a half dozen drives, turned it on and off many times, the last around noon today. Now it's dead again, same as before -- everything works when you turn the key half-way, then we try to start it, nothing, total silence. I saw a suggestion for other VWs that it might be a Power Supply Relay, but so far I can't find that. Anyone know where that's located on the eos -- or have other suggestions?

PS, I did play with the gas cap as I too thought of vapor like or similar. But this seems pretty clearly to be electrical.

How much did it cost you to replace the switch?

Try doing it again, if it's not too much, and see what happens.

If it works again, then something is affecting the switch. Could your key be doing something to the switch?

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BostonEOS

· #18 · Sep 24, 2021

barrypf123 said:
I splurged on the dealer switch -- $95. If I do it again, I'll try one of the $20 versions. Is there some way to test if the switch is damaged? Obviously it was fine when I installed it and for about 24 hours after.

You could try a voltmeter, to see if there's anything flowing between the connections, I think. It "seems" like its being damaged thru "use".

Now IF that is the case, I dont know if your "key" is doing something to it, or if there's some "overload" which is "burning out" (Vox/All, is that possible?) the switch?

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