Not totally impossible - but as above would still expect run - at least on a few cylinders if not all.
Several 130 or AXD and 174 or AXE motors have had 'Catastrophic failure' documented on this forum,it would be interesting to see if it is a repeating scenario. It starts with a misfire,progresses to difficult starting with pointing uphill/downhill sometimes making a difference, and ends with a...
www.vwt4forum.co.uk
Anyways, the above statement bothers me - there is no mention that this test have been redone. Neither it's not mentioned that do the injectors get the firing pulses? If the injectors receive the pulses it would eliminate nearly 100% issues on ECU side and it's accessories - immobilizer, sensors, etc. Need to measure both voltage and current.
Well, modern ECUs would do the analysis in their diagnostics but I'm not sure AXD ECU was at that level.