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It gets more weird. bad cluster? Really need some experts here

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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
***EDIT** New info at the bottom**********
Here's the original problem http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1924717
Today is the first day I've driven it since then. Drove fine for the 15 minute drive to get an oil filter for the wife's saab.
Got ready to leave and it did the same thing again....CEL turned itself off, EPC light flashed and the weird thing is that I hear a definite "clicking" coming from the left side of the instrument cluster.
I checked all the fuses and relays and found nothing wrong.
So I restarted it and quickly ran to the engine bay and watched the fuel pressure gauge as the car died again....fuel pressure remains the same, no changes there.
SO I let the car sit for 30 minutes and then restart and drive home. About 10 minutes into the drive it starts cutting in-and-out, EPC light flashing, clicking behind the cluster.....one click each time it cuts off and 1 click when it comes back on.....car never stalled while driving even though the tach was reading "0" everytime it cut out.
I'm f'n stumped and bummed out, I can't get my buddy over here to look at the OBD port until next Sunday and that's race day, or should I say WAS race day.
Has anyone had a cluster go bad?
I'm thinking it's either the cluster or the ECU.....to me they are the only things that would make the CEL turn off and the EPC light flash and the tach die.
frustrated fred



Modified by 16vracer at 11:35 PM 4-12-2005
 
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Discussion Starter · #5 ·
Re: It gets more weird. bad cluster? Really need some experts here (mk4sway)

but it starts fine and all accesories work, etc.
Is there somekind of regulator in the alternator tht could be on the fritz?
 
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Re: It gets more weird. bad cluster? Really need some experts here (16vracer)

just hook up a volt meter to your battery while the car is at idle. that will tell you what the alternator is doing. you can also have someone rev the motor while doing this to see if it fluctuates. the voltage regulator is part of the alternator, so i don't know if you can replace it seperatly or not.
 
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Discussion Starter · #8 ·
Re: It gets more weird. bad cluster? Really need some experts here (16vracer)

just thought of something else after doing alot of Bentley reading.
The sensor on the gas pedal that communicates with the ECU.
Kinda makes sense, the tach falling to zero and all and I've been hearing that clicking in the general area of driver's side dash area, plus the Bentley says that the EPC light would come for this.
Hopefully someone is coming over tomorrow or wednesday to fix my scan port and we'll see.
Anyone know how much that sensor is?
 
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Re: It gets more weird. bad cluster? Really need some experts here (16vracer)

relays clicking away is usually a sign of low voltage, or bad capacitors. Im leaning towards a short circuit, or perhaps a bad ECU. Soffy fred. Good luck with the car.
 
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Re: It gets more weird. bad cluster? Really need some experts here (enginerd)

OK, got some new info tonight, thanks to Ray(Eggroller). He came over and we did some testing on the scan port.
The OBD port gets power, ground and there is continuity in the K-Wire between the OBD port and the K-wire on the radio harness plug (I run no stereo). We also found a group of gray/white wires that are grouped right next to the wire harness for the cigarette lighter. There are like 6 of them taped together....all are gray/white like the K-Wire and there is continuity between them and the OBD port as well as the k-wire in the radio harness.
What other signals does the OBD port need?
Rays VAGCOM gave a list of possible reasons for not communicating, we ruled all of them out except the one that said "K-Wire Stuck".
Were all does the K-wire go?
On another note, I took apart the connecters for the sensor on the gas pedal and throttle body and put some Di-Electric grease on them.
Drove the car alot today and even though I thought it was going to start acting up again....(CEL turned off, which is usually the warning sign before it stalls), it ran fine....didn't stall or cut-out anymore, even the though the CEL went off (it's usually on because of the rear o2 sensor).

So basically we are stuck, we also noticed that my car and his, both AWD cars, have an extra wire on the OBD port that IS NOT listed in the Bentley. It's white with red stripe.
Anyone know what that is? It's not in the wiring diagram.

Since I have no stereo, what should my K-wire be doing?
 
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#11 ·
Re: It gets more weird. bad cluster? Really need some experts here (16vracer)

Quote, originally posted by 16vracer »
We also found a group of gray/white wires that are grouped right next to the wire harness for the cigarette lighter. There are like 6 of them taped together....all are gray/white like the K-Wire and there is continuity between them and the OBD port as well as the k-wire in the radio harness.
Were all does the K-wire go?

Here is a picture of the bundle of K-Wires we found. They are a part of the harness to the Cigarette Lighter.

We also traced the K-Wire to the blue connector on the instrument cluster (#25). We checked for continuity between it and the OBD port. It did not have any. Then we found the bundle. I realize now that we did not double check if the cluster location has continuity to the bundle.


Modified by eggroller at 12:00 AM 4-13-2005
 
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Discussion Starter · #12 ·
Re: It gets more weird. bad cluster? Really need some experts here (eggroller)

Quote, originally posted by eggroller »
We checked for continuity between it and the OBD port. It did not have any. Then we found the bundle. I realize now that we did not double check if the cluster location has continuity to the bundle.

Modified by eggroller at 12:00 AM 4-13-2005

Ray, the problem is that we didn't recheck continuity between the cluster the k-wire after we replaced the fuse for the cigarette lighter, which was blown.
Oh also, there is no power at the cigarette lighter, though the fuse is good.
 
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Re: It gets more weird. bad cluster? Really need some experts here (16vracer)

this proably isnt whats wrong but when my comfort control module was going crazy my car was doing all kinds of crap including illuminating random dash lights and relays in it were clicking a way like mad. maybe just something else to check out.
 
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Re: It gets more weird. bad cluster? Really need some experts here (16vracer)

Quote, originally posted by 16vracer »
Tim- What all does the comfort control module do? Does it come on Golfs too, or just GTI's ?

honestly im not entirely sure of all its functions but i know it has a hand in power everything, sunroof, dash lights, because those were just a few of the things that went haywire when mine was bad....its a rectangular black box up under the drivers side dash on the firewall on the left side. next time you hear the clicking sound try to slide under there and see if the clicking is coming from it. fyi they arent cheap to replace
 
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Discussion Starter · #16 ·
Re: It gets more weird. bad cluster? Really need some experts here (tim18t)

Never thought I'd say this again, but the car is now at the Dealer.
I have an extended bumper-to-bumper warranty, so we'll see if they can fix the scan port.
I did find out that there is a recall for my car for the instrument cluster relay software, which if gone unfixed can result in no communication to the scan port

Hopefually that's the problem, but how can they update that if the port doesn't work?
 
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Discussion Starter · #20 ·
Re: (FreeStage3)

Matt- I've known the 3 main service advisors since '97, with my mk2 2035cc 16v. I auto-x with one of them, he's got an R32.
One of my buddies works there in service, he usually does stuff to my car at his house but his garage is way to full right now, swapping a Subaru SVT motor into his Vanagon right now. I think he's the first guy to swap a 1.8t into a mk1 jetta, I think it was done back in 98 or 99, maybe earlier....looks factory too.
They have actually had my extended warranty company replace a chipped GIAC ECU that went bad. They never asked the dealer if it was modded, and they never told.
Anyway, we'll see how it goes. The service guy who will look at it tomorrow loves wiring but he wasn't to happy when I showed him my car. I think that's why my buddy that works in service told me to have the "wiring" guy look at it
 
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