The Passat has croaked again.  Best I can tell with no diagnostic tools, there it doesn't have fuel pressure at the fuel rail.  Here's how I came to that conclusion . . . It was running fine.  Franny drove it to my house.  When she started to leave it started then died.  Now it sputters a little when you try to start it, but won't run.  Seemed to me to be a fuel issue, so with no other way to check it, I removed the fuel pressure regulator and turned the switch on for a second.  Nothing happened.  Turned it on for several seconds . . . still nothing.  Turned it on and got out and looked down into the hole where the regulator used to be . . . There seems to be a little movement in the gas sitting in the bottom of the rail, but there is no way there's enough gas or pressure there to feed the injectors.

I replaced the fuel filter.  The old one wasn't stopped up and the new one didn't change anything.  I'm thinking it's a bad fuel pump, but they run a little over $400 at the dealer (Justin checked with a friend of his at Al Johnson's in Dalton . . . haven't checked with Villiage yet) and a pump from my FLAPS (Auto Zone) is $299.99.  Soooooo, I don't want to "guess" it's the fuel pump, spend a bundle and then find out it's something else.

Also, it seems there are 2 different pumps for a 96 Passat.  Do they interechange?  Mine is a 2.0 ABA with an automatic transmission if that makes a differance.

Anyone have any words of wisdom for me?

I would check the power at the pump or jump the fuel pump to see if it is running, also sometimes you can hear the pump though the gas filler

I was going to drop the tank tomorrow and check for power before I went any further . . . but tonight at the cruise-in I was told that there should be an access pannel under the back seat or possibly in the trunk.  Is that true?  Man that would be nice!     It's an 18 gallon tank and Franny never lets it get below a half tank.  I wasn't looking forward to dropping it.  Sometime tomorrow after the "blizzard" melts away, I'll check it out.

Thanks Sal!  Somewhere I have a bunch of relays I cleaned out of a 96 Passat GLS exactly like mine at Pull-A-Part.  Well, it wasn't "exactly" like mine.  That one was sitting in a junk yard.  Other than that, they were about the same!   

I replaced the fuse and everything seems to be fine.  Maybe I just got lucky this time!     I think I'll go buy a lottery ticket.   

I think the car was just giving you a warning shot across the bow... mighty considerate if you ask me.   

That's kind'a what I was thinking . . .