[Vwdiesel] Stranded-Anti Theft problem

[Dave Cook]

Hey All-

I'm hoping someone can help out here.

This is a 2002 VW Golf TDI

I went to meet a friend in another town a couple hours away for lunch today.  When we went out to start the Golf, the starter was cranking very slowly.  We initially tried push starting it but with no luck.  So we tried jumping it.  The starter released a bit of smoke, and has been cranking very slowly since.  This is a known crappy "rebuild" starter that has acted up a couple times already but I was hoping for warmer weather to change it out. 

So we tried pull starting it with his truck.

That initially didn't work because of all the snow on the road-when I'd let out the clutch the tires would just slide on the snow rather than force the engine spin.

(I realized this after the first attempt.)

Frozen and hungry at this point, we went to lunch and decided to try again after.  

I was able to make the engine crank by only letting off the clutch when we hit dry patches of pavement, however the engine won't start.  It is cranking as evidenced by the tach registering vs earlier when the tach wouldn't register due to the tires only sliding.

The problem seems to be anti-theft system is preventing the car from starting.  The anti theft and the glow plug light are flashing when the ignition is on, even after the rest of the lights go off.  I'm afraid that all the tries of roll-starting without success due to sliding on the ice might have tripped something in the anti theft system.

I do have a VAG-COM cable with me, though I don't know for sure if it will work with my friend's Mac that I'm currently typing this on.

The car is outside with the block heater plugged in and battery disconnected hoping that will reset whatever the problem is.

Anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks,
 
Dave Cook