06 Mk5 Rabbit 2.5, 215,000 miles on it
Accidentally broke my starter the other day while trying to diagnose what ended up being a dying battery. Terminal bolt broke in half.
Long story short, I changed the starter and battery today. I’ve done this before, never had an issue. This time, car shut off after a few seconds. Started again, revved the engine to pull more juice, and couldn’t get revs above 1900 rpm.
Drove it home from my job, limping the whole way. Acceleration was limited, AC wasn’t clicking on cool so blowing ambient air. No dim or over-bright lights. Decided to put gas before I got home. Acceleration went back to normal after gassing up, but battery light still on.
My worst fear is having to change the alternator. If you know VW 2.5 Engines, you know why.
Is it the alternator?
Tl;dr My gut tells me the alternator somehow went bad throughout the 3 days I had it sitting at my job. Autozone sold me a bad starter, kept thinking I flubbed the installation, ended up draining the new battery trying to start it up. Replaced the new battery and bad starter tonight. Battery light came on, limited acceleration and no AC. What happened?
Don’t you have to register batteries on a vw?
Just now learning about this. I’ve changed batteries three times since I’ve had the vehicle and never had to run adaptation. Waiting for Monday to take it to a VW specialist.