So the factory battery in my 2005.5 Jetta TDI finally died. I swapped it out for another battery and now I am having some trouble.

As soon as I fired up the car with the new battery I noticed a few extra lights on in the dash.

One is the ESP traction light. The traction control is on 'OFF' and will not turn back on. Also the light that looks like a steering wheel(power steering light) is on. Its just in yellow and not red.

For the first couple times, the wipers would not work at all. After a few tries, they started working.

I cycled the power on the car a few times and these two warning lights never would go off.

Any ideas??

Thanks!!

 

My hunch: It sounds like you lost your "Keep Alive Memory" (KAM) codes. The PCM retains and modifies certain engine operating parameters as you drive. It keeps these in memory when you turn off the engine by relying on a small power draw from the battery. So when you disconnect the battery for any reason (e.g. your battery change), you lose the memory. One idea would be to hook another good battery in parallel before disconnecting the bad battery, although I guess it's too late in your case. I suspect you'll have to reset all your codes with a scanner tool and let your car "relearn" itself over time. This could take several days, X number of starts, and/or X number of miles, but it should come around (within a week or so) unless there are other underlying problems. There may be others who who additional advice, but I don't know how they'd do it.

Actually, I found your post because I'm in a similar predicament, except I'm trying to find a way to retain the codes while changing the starter. I've head of some interesting ideas such as putting as small power supply through the 12V accessory plug, but it sounds dubious. Hope some of this helped.