2006 MK5 Jetta - Car starting problems

[06 jetta]

Hey everyone,

I've searched and haven't been able to find any info on a problem I had this afternoon.

I was driving to school and everything on my 2.5L MK5 '06 Jetta was running smoothly. However, when I went to pull into the parking ramp, the car shut off and I lost power. I immediately tried to re-start the car but I couldn't get it to start. When I put the key in and turned it, the car would try to start (rpms would rise to 1000) but then it would completely loose power. The lights, radio, and electrical switches all worked fine.

I ended up getting a jump on the car and it immediately started. I was able to park the car and everything appeared to be back to normal. 4 or 5 hours later, I drove the car home and it worked fine.

I'm unsure of whether it just needs a new battery or if the alternator isn't working properly? Or could it potentially be a lack of fuel getting to the engine? Or if this whole thing could have just been a fluke? Again, it would start up and then immediately lose power.

I just don't want to end up on the thruway going 65mph and suddenly lose power again.


The car has the original battery - but the car is only an '06 and there's only 40k on the engine.


I'm wondering if anyone has any advice or previous experiences like this? Thanks in advance!

[06 jetta]

Anyone?

[mabbonizio186]

6 years old is fairly old for a battery... I would get the battery tested, then if it checks out have the can scanned for codes. Even if the check engine light isn't on, there may still be some.

[f5racing]

Have your battery tested. Check all the connections to the battery and alternator. Had similar issues, could not duplicate on demand. Found that the factory ground terminal for the battery ground had come loose (read: broken stud). Repaired by running new charging cables for the entire system and repairing the ground stud. No issues to date (3 years).

[06 jetta]

Thanks for the advice guys

I took the car just to the local Autozone to have the battery tested - guy told me that the battery had almost full power and the alternator was fine.

I'm going to take it into the vw dealer this week to have them check it out. I've had no problems since but it's strange that I had this problem.

[classicjetta]

Your battery may test fine but you might consider replacing it anyway. It's possible there is some internal damage that is causing the fault when you hit a bump but it works fine most of the time.

[clem88]

Hi guys,

Since last month i had some trouble with my 06 Jetta, When I am trying to start the car, every light radio etc.. works perfectly, the thing is that when i try to start nothing happens, only a wierd noise, like tic tic tic tic with all the light on the dashboard blinking. Then i connect my battery to an other car and it start perfectly like nothing happened. Then if i turn off the engine, sometimes it starts again sometimes not. One time I had a 300 Miles trip turn off the car to check in at the hotel and it didn't start after that... do you think it's the alternator or the battery or something else ? The battery has never been changed before.

Thanks

[f5racing]

Hi guys,

Since last month i had some trouble with my 06 Jetta, When I am trying to start the car, every light radio etc.. works perfectly, the thing is that when i try to start nothing happens, only a wierd noise, like tic tic tic tic with all the light on the dashboard blinking. Then i connect my battery to an other car and it start perfectly like nothing happened. Then if i turn off the engine, sometimes it starts again sometimes not. One time I had a 300 Miles trip turn off the car to check in at the hotel and it didn't start after that... do you think it's the alternator or the battery or something else ? The battery has never been changed before.

Thanks

You need to check a few things out to be sure, but if you can immediately move the battery to another vehicle and start it, there is not likely to be a battery issue (unless the second car only needs a tiny amount of juice to start it). I would hook a volt meter to the battery when not running, and when running, to see what condition the alternator is in (part of it anyways). Having a local auto parts store run a load test on the battery would be a good idea, as well as checking all the connections, especially grounds. The battery ground in the MKV is terrible, one of the first things I did was to move it from the crappy post to a new location.