Unfortunately, most of us have these cars due to a minimal amount of electronics. Such issues are staggering in my VW TDI compared to my MB's.

Having said that, the electronics are sure mysterious. By dinking around, I have burned out glo plugs before, resulting in the disappearing of the glo light. I thought it was coincidental, but actually by running the starter hard, wearing down the battery, swapping batteries and going again, I killed a glo plug and the car wouldn't start

I've also shorted out the starter wires before (loss of rubber coating). That sent a disaster through the system in terms of how the VR, Alt and Battery were interacting.

diesel don

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DAILY DRIVERS:
'84 300DT 298k (Aubrey's)
'99.5 Jetta TDI IV 251k (Julie's)
'97 Jetta TDI 127k (Amber's)
'97 Jetta TDI 186k (Matt's)
'96 Passat TDI 237k (Don's
'84 300D 211k Mint (Arne- Undergoing Greasecar Conversion)

SOLD:
'82 240D 229k (Matt's - Converted-300DT w/ 4 speed