It may be a long-shot.. try the thread named
"2001 Passat GLX will not start"

In short, my car once would not start for no good reason at all. It
behaved as though it was not getting fuel so I bypassed the computer by
running power directly to the fuel pump for a few moments and then
started the car with the jumper in place. This worked although I never
did figure out why, the car still is driven every day and is still
running and starting perfectly. The jumper was removed after the car
sputtered back to life. It can't hurt to try this (assuming you leave
a fuse in line with your pump while you test it)... and do not
over-work the starter as Woodchuck implied.

good luck!


Passat_driver wrote:
> I ran out of gas a couple of weeks ago, then had difficulty starting the
> car two days ago. Now it won't start at all and I am told it needs a fuel
> pump. Could this be related to letting it run out of gas? I heard
> somewhere that it could damage the car if I ever let it completely run out
> of gas.