[Vwdiesel] Error Code P0380

[William D. Hamblen]

Hi Tom,

Very often this is the glow plug harness - especially on the 99s.  I had 
that code intermittantly (eventually it became permanent) on our 99 
Jetta for about 18 months - but with no starting problems whatsoever. 
Various dealers failed to fix it while the warranty was still active. 
Eventually I replaced the harness myself and that fixed the problem. 
There were a number of threads about this code in the forums at 
tdiclub.com a few years back.  I'm sure it still comes up from time to 
time.

Anyway, the harness is pretty cheap (about $20 IIRC) so you might want 
to try that first - unless you have some other reason to suspect the 
relay (like the hard starting :-)).

  - Bill Hamblen

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004, Tom Krummell wrote:

> Vehicle:  1999 Jetta IV TDI, ALH engine, 62,150 miles
>
> A few days ago the "check engine" light came on, and a query with the
> OBD-II reader got an error code of P0380, "Glow plug circuit."  After
> resetting the OBD-II, the light came on again returning the same error
> code.  A visual on the whole circuit from glow plugs to fusebox didn't
> find anything wrong, but after reading some of the responses in the
> newsgroup (I'm a newbie, BTW) the culprit seems more and more to be a glow
> plug relay (VW #038-911-253).  The "check engine" light comes on about one
> minute after starting, and starting is now (and always has been) darn hard
> for this particular car.  (My wife's 2003 Jetta TDI wagon starts
> immediately.)
>
> Am I on the right track suspecting the glow plug relay? 
> For the record, I replaced the timing belt, tensioner, idler pulley and
> anything else that moved in the timing belt area (except the water pump)
> last summer; no problems until now.
>
> TIA,
> Tom Krummell
> Roseville, CA
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Vwdiesel mailing list
> Vwdiesel at vwfans.com
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/vwdiesel
>