[V8] Re: V8 stall downhill in gear

[Buchholz, Steven]

... sorry, but I can not see any way this can happen as described ...
unless the clutch is slipping *seriously* ...

If you are coasting down a hill in gear with the clutch engaged, you
could turn the key off and the engine would continue to be turned by the
motion of the car.  If you have dash lights coming on in this situation
I'd say the thing to do would be to read the codes out of the ECU
immediately when the situation occurs.  If you had something like
ProDiag you can actually log the data blocks in the ECU and read them
out afterwards to see the engine parametrics.  You can read them into a
spreadsheet and plot them out afterwards ... pretty cool IMO.  I am
pretty sure the other VAG1551/52 products have similar features.  

So ... exactly which lights on the dash come on in this situation?
Given the engine is still turning, the alternator should still be
charging the battery, so the charging light should be off.  Are the
engine oil pressure and water and oil temp gauges still registering?  Is
there anything noted in the diagnostic display?  If any of these
indicators were behaving abnormally it would be a clue as to what the
problem might be.  You haven't by any chance done any relay swapping or
any other messing with the electrical system of the car have you?  

I can fully understand the engine stalling after the clutch pedal is
depressed in this situation ... as reported earlier I've even
experienced this on one of my cars.  The TPS or ISV would be my prime
candidates for culprit on this sort of issue.  

> 
> Yes, in fact, when the engine stalls, the dashlights
> do come on even if the clutch is engaged and in gear. 
> This actually happened to me a few times with the
> clutch engaged.  All other times, the car stalled
> immediately when I disengaged the clutch.  Obviously
> whith the clutch engaged, the engine is still turning,
> but the ignition quits.
> I'm starting to think it is a TPS issue, I'll have to
> get my multimeter out this weekend and do some
> diagnostics.  Not sure what else could cause a problem
> like this.  The trip computer does in fact go to
> infinity without throttle, however.  Does the trip
> computer get this info from the TPS?  If so, the TPS
> must be working.  Any more ideas?  Thanks for the
> input guys.