2003 Volkswagen Jetta GL 2.0 crank and no start

Down the rabbit hole I went! Blew my entire weekend on this thing, and got bupkus to show for it.

It started when my co-worker brought his badly misfiring Jetta to me on Friday night.
Firestone was going to charge him 2300 dollars to replace plugs and wires and coil pack… to which I promptly called BS.

Here are the codes it was displaying:

P0300 – Random misfire detected
P0302 – Misfire cylinder 2
P0303 – Misfire cylinder 3
P2181 Cooling System Performance

Here are the actions I’ve taken to try and address the issue:

1) Plugs and Plug wires. The spark plugs had been in there for 145,000 miles and showed it. The electrode had been burned away to the point where it gapped out at .092 when proper gapping on this one was .043 This sucked, as the air intake manifold had to come off to get at the buggers.

2) Crankshaft position sensor. Since plugs and plug wires didn’t do it, the next indicated culprit was the crankshaft position sensor. Replaced that, too. This sucked, as it required moving of the air pump, removal of one or two coolant lines, and then removal of the oil filter as the sensor was stuck behind and a little to the right of said filter and I needed the real estate.

3) When 1 and 2 didn’t fix the issue, the next was the coil pack. Replaced that.. this was relatively easy, as only the air pump had to move.

Cleared the codes and tried to start… crank, no start. The CEL popped on and gave a NEW code: P0865. This confused me, as I didn’t see how the Transmission Control Module could have anything to do with the previous codes or parts.

When this failed to get things rolling, I started back-tracking. I verified all my connections, both coolant and electrical. Found a breach in the air pump’s line, and patched that up. Cleared the codes again, and no joy.

I know there’s spark, as plug #1 knocked me on my ass when I was checking it. Hand was numb for five minutes afterwards.

I know there’s gas, as you can smell it. My garage reeks of it now.

Spraying some starter fluid into the airbox yields no results… not even a burp or a backfire. Nada. Just cranks and cranks.

Now I went in after the fuses and relays. All the fuses relating to the ECU are good. The relays are good (I think), as the fuel pump activates and does its thing.

After all this, I’m out of ideas. I’m sure I tinkered around with it a bit and did more than this, but I just can’t recall it right now. I’m starting to suspect that the car somehow slipped time… if the plugs were never changed, odds are the timing belt wasn’t either. The interval on that belt is 50,000-60,000… so it’s over 2x overdue! If it’s not the timing, then I’m really suspecting the ECU might’ve been cooked.

Is it at all possible that the immobilization security system went nuts and is shutting down the fuel injectors or something? I had something similar to that happen on an Oldsmobile Alero a while back..

Any ideas/suggestions for a shade-tree mechanic that’s starting to doubt his creds to even turn a wrench anymore?

Disillusioned,

Hinoki