RF Generation Message Board

Anyone know anything about this or have any ideas?


My fiancee has a 2000 VW Jetta.  The brake lights became stuck on yesterday.  We found a recall online that said this was a problem with a part in the pedal breaking.  We pulled the brake light fuse so the battery didn't die and had AAA tow it to the VW dealership. 

They changed the part and put the fuse back in, but the car won't start.  Now they want to charge us $95 to do extensive diagnostics + whatever the cost of the repair.

They said that we messed up the computer by pulling a fuse out while the car was off.

Did we really screw up the computer, or are they just trying to rip us off for the repair of the recall because the car is out of warranty?

Any immediate help would be fantastic!  Thanks!

I'm not to up on todays cars, but pulling a fuse shouldn't screw anything up when the car is off.

They are claiming that by pulling the fuse we damaged the "engine control module" / computer and will need to pay for extensive diagnostic tests.

I questioned the dealer as well as the VW 1800 help line and both came back to me with the same story. 

I know we are getting pushed around because we are only in our mid-20's, but, there isn't much that we can do about this....we need the car fixed.

Did you think of taking it to someone else?

Well, we had to get the recall part fixed, so it had to get towed to the dealership.  We might have to start considering having AAA tow it to another place, if they will, considering they just towed it to the dealer the other day.

Take the car to another mechanic.  Pulling a fuse is not going to mess up a module.  You'll have to pay for another tow though 8-(

AAA took care of the 1st tow......a second tow might be the best thing to do, especially since the recall part was repaired.

You might try asking at rec.autos.makers.vw.watercooled to see if anyone can help.

did you ask them if the car would have broken if the fuse had blown on its own as that is the same as taking it out?

And as far as i know (have worked selling cars) taking a fuse out will break noting in the EMU it will only stop whatever working that it protects

well, we needed the car back badly, so they said they could get it running if they did a $250 throttle body service....

we knew we wouldn't get it back running if we didnt say okay, so for the low low dealer rip off of $250 we have her car back and running perfectly.....oh well.....

if we had the time we would have taken it somewhere else....

In the future, I would suggest asking to speak to the dealerships general manager. Not the service manager mind you..... Typically the general manager will want to make the customers happy no matter what.

Get your car then blow up the dealership. I have removed one of my fuses many time while my truck was off and on and nothing has happened. Sounds like BS to me.

Most folks know the dealer is the worst place to take their car. That is, unless it's your only choice or it's the only place that can do the work.

i know the dealer is the worst place to take a car....but it was our only choice....one of the parts we needed was a recall part.....it probably would have cost more in the long run to take it anywhere else.....

For a recall you've pretty much got to go there.

Yea, it needs a little bit of other maintenance though.....and it is definitely NOT going anywhere near a dealer.....We're gonna take it to a family friend that does amazing (and cheap) work on cars.