Can’t jump Passat

IrishZeus

Morning all,

Some help needed. Wife has a loan of a Passat (2012) from work which died as she left the lights on.

Connected jumps leads from 2017 Superb. Due to where the car was parked, the Positive to positive (terminal point to terminal point) connected fine. Connected negative on Superb to the metal point beside the battery (as indicated) and connected negative on Passat to a metal piece of the engine bay frame.

Passat would not start at all - dead as a doornail.

Am I doing something wrong? I’ve jumped cars before and never had an issue. There was a spark so there was power flowing.

Thanks

CJhaughey

IrishZeus wrote: »

Morning all,

Some help needed. Wife has a loan of a Passat (2012) from work which died as she left the lights on.

Connected jumps leads from 2017 Superb. Due to where the car was parked, the Positive to positive (terminal point to terminal point) connected fine. Connected negative on Superb to the metal point beside the battery (as indicated) and connected negative on Passat to a metal piece of the engine bay frame.

Passat would not start at all - dead as a doornail.

Am I doing something wrong? I’ve jumped cars before and never had an issue. There was a spark so there was power flowing.

Thanks

Battery is probably discharged so much that it needs to be fully charged before it will start, it could be the original battery and may be weakened already.
You need to charge it with a charger and then try.

redcup342

IrishZeus wrote: »

Morning all,

Some help needed. Wife has a loan of a Passat (2012) from work which died as she left the lights on.

Connected jumps leads from 2017 Superb. Due to where the car was parked, the Positive to positive (terminal point to terminal point) connected fine. Connected negative on Superb to the metal point beside the battery (as indicated) and connected negative on Passat to a metal piece of the engine bay frame.

Passat would not start at all - dead as a doornail.

Am I doing something wrong? I’ve jumped cars before and never had an issue. There was a spark so there was power flowing.

Thanks

Jiggle the wires, can be tricky to get a good connection due to residue over the contacts.

cameramonkey

IrishZeus wrote: »

Morning all,

Some help needed. Wife has a loan of a Passat (2012) from work which died as she left the lights on.

Connected jumps leads from 2017 Superb. Due to where the car was parked, the Positive to positive (terminal point to terminal point) connected fine. Connected negative on Superb to the metal point beside the battery (as indicated) and connected negative on Passat to a metal piece of the engine bay frame.

Passat would not start at all - dead as a doornail.

Am I doing something wrong? I’ve jumped cars before and never had an issue. There was a spark so there was power flowing.

Thanks

Sometimes it can take a while , leave the car running for a bit and try again.

Ronney

redcup342 wrote: »

Jiggle the wires, can be tricky to get a good connection due to residue over the contacts.

Cup of hot water poured over rusty/oxidised contacts can help (disconnect jump leads)

wexie

Ronney wrote: »

Cup of hot water poured over rusty/oxidised contacts can help (disconnect jump leads)

Really? Never heard of that

I would have said give them a bit of a rub with some sandpaper perhaps?

Ronney

wexie wrote: »

Really? Never heard of that

I would have said give them a bit of a rub with some sandpaper perhaps?

Say an AA man do it many years ago and did the trick, Fair build up of Gunk on the contacts.


"Connected jumps leads from 2017 Superb. Due to where the car was parked, the Positive to positive (terminal point to terminal point) connected fine. Connected negative on Superb to the metal point beside the battery (as indicated) and connected negative on Passat to a metal piece of the engine bay frame."

Positive to Positive is correct but are you going Earthing point to Earthing Point with Negative? No expert but try negative on good battery to earthing point on flat

honda boi

As said before your probably not getting a good negative connection on the body.
Sand/scrape down a bit of the metal to get good connectivity

Markcheese

Is the superb a petrol and the other a diesel?
Cos a petrol will take a long while to charge up a diesel enough to start...
But either way, make sure you've a decent connection and then go get a coffee, give it 20 mins and have another go...

IrishZeus

Ronney wrote: »

Say an AA man do it many years ago and did the trick, Fair build up of Gunk on the contacts.


"Connected jumps leads from 2017 Superb. Due to where the car was parked, the Positive to positive (terminal point to terminal point) connected fine. Connected negative on Superb to the metal point beside the battery (as indicated) and connected negative on Passat to a metal piece of the engine bay frame."

Positive to Positive is correct but are you going Earthing point to Earthing Point with Negative? No expert but try negative on good battery to earthing point on flat

Tried both (curiosity) but negative terminal to earthing point did nothing. Will leave for longer this evening to see if it works.

IrishZeus

Markcheese wrote: »

Is the superb a petrol and the other a diesel?
Cos a petrol will take a long while to charge up a diesel enough to start...
But either way, make sure you've a decent connection and then go get a coffee, give it 20 mins and have another go...

Both diesels in this instance - a 1.6 Superb and I believe the Passat is a 2l.

Nekarsulm

If you can get at It, negative lead to the actual engine block of the Passat.

TheBoyConor

So the negative is attached to a metal part.
Are you sure it's bare metal and not painted or laquered in some fashion? Obviously that will insulate it.

Also make sure its a metal part that is connected to the chassis or engine properly and not something that is insulated from it by a plastic or rubber part.

jhud

Maybe if all else fails maybe the company has brake down cover on car that you can call to help.

biko

Leave the connection for 10 mins and then try to start the dead car.
Sometimes it takes a while for the dead battery to get enough charge to crank.

TheBoyConor

If the battery is gone fully and completely dead then the ECUs in the car might be dead and might have to be reprogrammed by a main dealer.

redcup342

TheBoyConor wrote: »

If the battery is gone fully and completely dead then the ECUs in the car might be dead and might have to be reprogrammed by a main dealer.

wtf :pac::pac::pac: hahahaha

Nah man, ECUs don't work like that.

toyotafan

TheBoyConor wrote: »

If the battery is gone fully and completely dead then the ECUs in the car might be dead and might have to be reprogrammed by a main dealer.

First time I heard :p:p

JohnBoy26

Could be cr@ppy leads. The car shouldn't be completely dead if there is a good connection even if it's a petrol you are running the leads from.

Hooks Golf Handicap

Same thing happened me a few weeks ago.
The wife's car was dead so I tried to jump it off my car.
Connected terminals OK but not enough charge for jump start straight away.

Thinking I had connected the terminals wrong I swapped them (never ever ever ever do this).
I walked away not noticing the smoke & melting caterpillar clips.
Had to use my jacket to smack them off the terminals when I noticed.

Missus knew she had AA through the dealer so she rang them looking for a call-out.
AA guy came & said he wouldn't mention my stupidity but reckoned the ECU was fried & he had to tow it.
Garage rang the next day quoting €1350+ for a new ECU & possibly €1500 for new injectors.
Tried to plead stupid over the jumping but they had her call recorded where she'd admitted everything.

Took it to an indie where we got a 2nd hand ECU fitted & everything re-coded for €550.
Back good as new but by christ did I learn my lesson.

Sam Quentin

I would definitely run the negative off the negative battery terminal of the good car to the negative plate on the bad car..
Also be patient, make sure bad cars key is in your hand and walk away for at least 15mins, battery is way below 9v I'd say..
Happened on my similar VAG car 2011 Skoda Octavia 1.6Td..
Dash cams and modern day 'gadgets' are giving batteries a lesser life span. Definitely don't take kindly to lights being left on over night.

TheBoyConor

Thats not too bad Hooks if you only had one ECU in the car.

Picture the mess if it was a high end car with about 20 different ECUs and modules and whatnots in it. It would nearly be a write off if you looked at the cost of fixing it - if it were even possible at all to fix it up.

OP, are you sure you have the cables connected correctly?

IrishZeus

IrishZeus wrote: »

..........
Connected jumps leads from 2017 Superb. Due to where the car was parked, the Positive to positive (terminal point to terminal point) connected fine. Connected negative on Superb to the metal point beside the battery (as indicated) and connected negative on Passat to a metal piece of the engine bay frame. ..................

3 jump leads?

TheBoyConor

Yeah.
Live neutral and earth :P

Odelay

Hooks Golf Handicap wrote: »

Same thing happened me a few weeks ago.
The wife's car was dead so I tried to jump it off my car.
Connected terminals OK but not enough charge for jump start straight away.

Thinking I had connected the terminals wrong I swapped them (never ever ever ever do this).
I walked away not noticing the smoke & melting caterpillar clips.
Had to use my jacket to smack them off the terminals when I noticed.

Missus knew she had AA through the dealer so she rang them looking for a call-out.
AA guy came & said he wouldn't mention my stupidity but reckoned the ECU was fried & he had to tow it.
Garage rang the next day quoting €1350+ for a new ECU & possibly €1500 for new injectors.
Tried to plead stupid over the jumping but they had her call recorded where she'd admitted everything.

Took it to an indie where we got a 2nd hand ECU fitted & everything re-coded for €550.
Back good as new but by christ did I learn my lesson.

It was using the caterpillar clips where it started to go wrong!

IrishZeus

AA to the rescue.

Crappy jump cables were the problem even though they were connected properly - had picked up a cheap set for €20 as a safety net. Guy who called out said I might as well have run dental floss between the cars :<

tossy

TheBoyConor wrote: »

If the battery is gone fully and completely dead then the ECUs in the car might be dead and might have to be reprogrammed by a main dealer.

Yeah like when your laptop goes dead and you loose all your data :rolleyes:

blackbox

Are the jump leads getting warm?

If you are charging a dead battery there should be a massive current that will warm up the leads.

If the leads are stone cold there is no current which would indicate a bad connection.

Atlantic Dawn

I had a set that had wires not much thicker than shoe laces, they were brutal, I bought a better set with big heavy cable like the power leads going to a desktop PC, no problem starting any car since, think they were about €50 or more but worth it.

biko

IrishZeus wrote: »

AA to the rescue.

Crappy jump cables were the problem even though they were connected properly - had picked up a cheap set for €20 as a safety net. Guy who called out said I might as well have run dental floss between the cars :<

Glad it got sorted. I guess we all just assumed the cables were good

I'd love to know how the OP managed to do this with two jump leads tbh

"Connected jumps leads from 2017 Superb. Due to where the car was parked, the Positive to positive (terminal point to terminal point) connected fine. Connected negative on Superb to the metal point beside the battery (as indicated) and connected negative on Passat to a metal piece of the engine bay frame. ..................
"

IrishZeus

Augeo wrote: »

I'd love to know how the OP managed to do this with two jump leads tbh

"Connected jumps leads from 2017 Superb. Due to where the car was parked, the Positive to positive (terminal point to terminal point) connected fine. Connected negative on Superb to the metal point beside the battery (as indicated) and connected negative on Passat to a metal piece of the engine bay frame. ..................
"

Was a typo. Positive to positive, negative terminal to earth point.

I appreciate your helpful suggestions on the topic and issue raised though. No, wait...

IrishZeus

biko wrote: »

Glad it got sorted. I guess we all just assumed the cables were good

I shall be investing in a new set. I wonder would money be better spent on a charger? We only have the one car normally so could be a better bet.

biko

Up to you of course but I think leads are better.
You are more likely to have them in the car and there is always another car around.

honda boi

IrishZeus wrote: »

I shall be investing in a new set. I wonder would money be better spent on a charger? We only have the one car normally so could be a better bet.

Get a jumpstarter and keep it in the boot.
I got one from Aldi a few years ago and its still perfect.
Has a compressor to. Its jump started everyone's car perfectly,never needed it for me own tho

IrishZeus

IrishZeus wrote: »

Was a typo. Positive to positive, negative terminal to earth point.

I appreciate your helpful suggestions on the topic and issue raised though. No, wait...

It took the AA to get you going....no one on here can identify sh1t jump leads remotely.

That's some typo BTW....an extra sentence.....

doolox

I got a set of cheap leads that were no good starting the car. I borrowed a set of heavy duty truck leads from my local friendly truck mechanic and it started first time. He told me to go to the motor factors and ask for truck leads and forget about the thin cheap leads. Also the tips about cleaning the contact points are vital to make a good contact.

The fact about making doubly sure about + and - is absolutely vital to avoid frying the electronics lurking in most modern cars. I believe that these are the greatest curse in modern cars because old school mechanics cannot fix them and have to rely on a tiny minority of highly qualified technicians to diagnose and fix electronic problems in cars. The parts are also very expensive as there is a different part for each car model. Model specific parts tend to be very expensive.

Until this technology becomes widespread and common across a range of makes it will continue to be dear to diagnose, repair or replace electronic parts.