new passat owner with problems

[CraigMcI]

Hello all,
I am a new passat owner, infact never had a VW before except an old beetle whhen i was a teenager .
I bought a 2000 passat last week that seemed to be in pretty good shape with 240K on it, Drives nice , rides like its on rails actuallly.
On about the second day i reversed out of a parking space and shifted into D a little to quick while rolling, back a little bit (just coming from driving a standard for a few years) it made a little bang and nothing major, But the gear indicater lights all went red. I Shut the car off , let it sit for a min and then restarted it and lights were normal again, and for 2 or 3 days they never went red again. Then yesterday morning after about an hour of driving, they did it again , but ujmthis time i didnt do anything to cause it. Now over the day of driving alot, whenever i shut down the lights would be normal for a bit, then change , or sometime change as soon as you put it im gear. The car sat for a couple hours at supper time , and when i went back out and drove away , it was acting normal , but after a bout a 7 to 10 K drive at around 60 km/h , they all changed to red again while runnning down he road . Today the car sat untill 7 or 8 pm, and when i started it the lights went red as soon as put in gear.
SO I am totally lost here as I dont know these cars at all , especially this type of tranny.
I am not positive that the incident of a rolling reverse into D did anything to damage the trannny, as when it does light up notrmal the tranny shifts smooth as butter and runs great.
I also went down a dirt road a couple days beofre the iussue and went through a couple puddles , very slwly, that were quite deep i would say,Those couple days leadsing up to the proble,m it also rained alot and I have ben diving the car almost non stop since i owned it , and dont have alot of money for repairs at the moment.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read my post and I do apprietiatte any help that I can get on the problem
Craig

[Steve in Chicago]

When the gear selector display lights up inverse, it means the trans computer is telling you something is wrong. It's the transmissions version of a Check Engine Light. Sometimes the trans will go into "limp Mode" if the right things report failures.

See if you can find someone with vag-com software (the equivalent of the dealer scan tool) and have the trans computer scanned for codes. That may give you enough info to point you in a direction to start troubleshooting.

[CraigMcI]

so is this vag com a special type of code reader, or does the regular type of code reader most shops have , will that type work
, also on the dash, I have a light that came on thats a circle with 3 slashshes around each side of it kinda , the best i can explain it,
I took the car out this morning, and it shifted fine and didnt go into limp mode untril i put it into manual mode and down shfted and give it a little gas(after about 5 min of driving 80 K)
, then it lit up again and wouldnt go away even after stoppin and restarting

and one other question , what is the hydraulic res that calls for mineral oil hydraulic fluid only WHat does thsi run or operate
thanks for any help given

[Steve in Chicago]

Vag-com is developed and sold by Ross Tech. http://www.ross-tech.com/
It's the closest thing you can get to what the dealer uses as a scan tool. It can interrogate ALL the modules (computers) in the car. I'm not sure what other scan tools can do this. Your average generic OBDII scanner can typically only communicate with the engine computer. There are probably professional scan tools that can do more advanced functions but I'm not familiar with which ones can do what.

The mineral oil reservoir towards the front of the engine bay is for the power steering system. Use ONLY the VW fluid in that system.

[CraigMcI]

is there anywhere i can find a list of all the dash warning lights and what they mean, thanks
im all ne to VW and dont know any site for this typew of info

[bryanvr6]

http://www.howtopdf.com/warning-lights-symbol/ download the pdf and it tells you what all the warning lights mean

[Steve in Chicago]

Is there anywhere I can find a list of all the dash warning lights and what they mean?

Did your car come with an Owners Manual?

[Slimjimmn]

hope this helps

[CraigMcI]

thanks , and no , when i bought the car it didnt come with an owners manual, actually it came with a 95 and its a 00, so doesnt do me any good, lol
I had the tranny codes read, it was all 1st gear going to ground codes, once he cleared the codes the tranny did not go into limp mode again all week, although i didnt drive it much I
i put about $20 fuel through it, so long enough to see it wasnt going into limp mode, BUT we had hard rains yesterday , the car sat in this rain, wasnt driven, I took it out this evening and after a 15 min drive , bam, limp mode again, Im guessing, now just guessing , theres a water leak and the TCm is getting damp after a good rain,
Is there anything i can do to seal the unit, or protect it from the water, I am going to pulll the carpet tomorrow and take a look at it , clean the connections , but a electrical grease or something should be able to stop this from happening whenever it rains i am thinking, any ideas anyone
thanks for the help

[Slimjimmn]

1- fix the water leak at the cabin filter seal (actually is a recall for this)
2-dry out everything
3-check for corrosion on the tcm connector and open the module up and clean it. add dielectric grease to the electrical connector and drive the car.

[bvariant]

Welcome to the club of B5 owners fighting water intrusion, a topic that will yield you a huge number of threads from a simple search. In addition to taking slimjimmn's advice, you might need to consider other sources of leaks as well. A nice overview of some can be found here:

http://www.passatworld.com/forums/42...nger-side.html

Having personally waged a campaign during the last three weeks (checking sunroof drains and door bottom drains, redoing the pollen filter housing, and so far recaulking the window regulator seals on three of the four doors), I am now almost at the point of having a completely dry car again. I also got a new ECU gasket, which is $5 of prevention so I don't have to worry about that again for another few years.

It can be a bit maddening because a fairly small leak can give you damp but not saturated carpets. Also, if the leak is slow, you may need big rain for a definitive answer about success. Rest assured, though, that it's worth it: if you do not fix the water intrusion, you will have still bigger problems later.

[Slimjimmn]

most notorious is this guy:


that black plug under the battery clogs up and then when it fills with water, drains through the firewall plug (on the firewall right where you see the end of the battery cable) into the driver side car killing the comfort module.