Transmission in fail safe mode

POPDADDY

MEMBER
VOLKSWAGEN

1994 vw passat glx vr-6 170k miles automatic. My wife left headlights on in my vw and ran battery down. Neighbor jumped it with a booster pak cable thingy. Now when in drive vehicle stays in 3rd gear. I can manually shift 1, 2, 3. But it will not shift by itsself, and even when I manually shift - no 4th gear. Transmission shop says no transmission problem, electrical issue? Did jumping my battery mess up my electrical, and can I reset something? Help!

1 Reply

WHIZY

MEMBER
7 POSTS

I have same issue with my car 2000 jetta 2.0 auto. But I was playing with fuse box last night & in the mornig the car was running in 3rd gear. (Same as yrs) I call VW, they said its in safe mode. Talk to transmission shop & he said u r lookin around $1000 repair ( most probably electrical ).

Then while I was commin back, all of a sudden Engin light turned OFF & car is back to normal position. I have no clue what happen, I went back to tranny shop & he said u still lookin $600 repair atleast for yr electrical.

I decide & get my own OBD reader & found these codes P0725, P1850, P1780, P0140

now I have no clue what that means BUT my car is running absolutly fine. Accept I feel bit jerk while downshifting from 3rd to 2nd.