I got in my car yesterday to head to Jason’s place, and noticed that the Check Engine light was on.  I didn’t think much of it, as it was probably just my seasonal “Replace a glow plug” reminder.  When I got home, I scanned it out with VCDS, and discovered two codes:

P0671 (Glow plug #1, ie Cylinder #4, driver-most end)

P3105 -  Valve for Intake Manifold Flap (N239): Open or Short to Ground

I’d never seen the P3105 before, but it didn’t sound good.  I did a bit of googling, and came up with this post on TDI Club. As you can see, mine was a bit more than a frayed wire; I would have used the usual (and VW-endorsed) crimp repair, but I was all out of splices, so I sucked it up and soldered it.

Further, because the purple wire was already disconnected, I covered the length of it in heatshrink tubing. I then wrapped the yellow wire in high-quality 3M electrical tape, before wrapping both wires together, and reinstalling the split-loom tubing.

One thing the linked post wasn’t super-clear on was the exact location of this wire.  It’s the cable that plugs into the sensor behind the intake manifold.

Once that was done, replacing the glow plug was a minor matter. Total time, according to the Garage Cam was 40 minutes, including reassembly and cleanup.

Filed under:
Photos, Projects by Kevin