[sdhelzer]

Hello RabitNoodle,

How are you and your Jetta doing up there in Big Sky country?

I am dying of curiosity to know if you tried starting with your secondary remote or valet key and if so what happened.

I am going to relate to you a funny story relative to my suggestion, although it wasn’t all that funny at the time:

When my 2000 Jetta turned six months I took it into my dealership for its 5,000 mile inspection and oil change. After changing the oil and filter the mechanic started the vehicle (hood opened and positioned up) and checked for leaks as he should have done. No leaks… he lowered the vehicle and dropped the hood really hard. I could hear the bang from inside the waiting area window overlooking the service bay.

Less than a second after he dropped the hood Miss Jetta locked all doors and proceeded to roll up all windows that were down. Here was my Jetta purring away at an idle, key in the ignition and completely locked up. Talk about shocked… I thought the mechanic was going to piss in his pants and needless to say I was pissed.

After some spirited discussions I agreed to let the body shop manager snake a wire through the rubber / nylon door molding and unlock the car. Car unlocked, it was driven around to the front of the dealership and turned off.

I paid my bill, got into Miss Jetta, turned the key and absolutely nothing happened, nada, not even a peep or sputter. VW’s infamous immobilizer had kicked in and nothing worked.

The bottom line is the dealership had to reprogram my remote so that Miss Jetta would accept it again.

Sounds crazy I know and I still can’t quite believe that it happened, but it did.

That is why I suggested in my last post that you try your secondary remote or valet key, because sometimes Jettas can get pretty nasty when they think they have been mistreated.