VW woes

[jadkar]

After trying to post my problem on the GTi forums and getting nowhere with those guys I decided I should ask my faithful friends here at Prime for some advice.

My wife's car, 2001 VW GTi VR6 has developed a strange problem (another in the long list of VW crap that broke). While she's driving for no apparent reason the headlights, horn, HVAC, wipers, and blinkers stop working. They don't flicker, they just go out. Then suddenly they turn back on, it could be 15 minutes, or 2 days later. Does anyone have any suggestions???

I have owned 30 cars, this is the first VW, and probably the last. I have had more problems in 3 years with this car then 7 with a Acura Legend coupe I owned, and that car had 373,000 miles on it when I gave it away!! On this VW I did the window regulator 3 times, mass airflow sensor, coolant sensor, electric washer nozzle, left rear caliper (and rotor it destroyed), the interior is falling apart, and now this weird electrical issue. The warranty was only 2 years/24,000 miles, and of course everything started breaking right when the warranty ran out!!

Anyway, sorry for the bitching ......My first thought is I should look for a bad ground somewhere. I just was hoping maybe someone else has had a problem similar to this with their VW and could shed some light. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
John

 

[JPS Europa]

Check the back side of your fuse block. I have seen some weird stuff happen in the past at that location on older VW's. If you have a wiring diagram, look for places where the wiring for all your intermittent items draw power, then look there. If there is a relay controlling the accessory setting, I would also check that out. The grounds are widely distributed, so I would suspect the +12V side of things unless there is a relay involved. Happy hunting.

 

[jadkar]

JPS......Thanks, you are the second person who suggested the back of the VW fuse box, I will look there tomorrow