Passat (B5) :: 2002 - Interior Electrical Malfunction
Jun 25, 2006
I was driving my '02 Passat 1.8T home yesterday, and I noticed the steering wheel controls for the sound system weren't working. I thought nothing of it, believing that it was a fuse. I also noticed the my radar detector wasn't on, but was plugged in. So the cig lighter wasn't working either. Hmm. I got home, and pulled into my driveway, and then noticed that the HomeLink garage door opener wasn't functioning either. It was late so I just left the car outside for the night, planning to work on it the next day. Today, I went to go get my friend (I didn't have time to check on the problem), and when I honked for him to come outside, the HORN wouldn't work. At that point, I went home, popped open the fuse box, and checked all the corresponding fuses. And whaddaya know, all the fuses are fine. Yet, still, nothing work.
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I'm really puzzled by the electrical issue I'm having with my wife's 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer. It's got a 120,000 miles and we've owned it since new. It has had almost zero problems up until this point.
The other day, my wife calls and says that her A/C isn't working, it's just blowing hot air. When she got home, she turned the car off, removed her key, and noticed that the climate control blower was running. She turned it off and went inside. She had the radio on.
When I came home, I verified that with no key in the ignition, turning on the blower motor switch did turn on the blower motor. I started the car and immediately noticed both the condenser cooling fan and the engine cooling fan both immediately started running. I turned on the A/C, got nothing but hot air, and verified that the compressor was not turning.
I turned the car off and decided to check for fuses. When I pulled the A/C fuse under the hood, I heard a loud CLICK from the A/C compressor area. When I reinserted the fuse, I received another click. I then pulled out the A/C compressor clutch relay, and heard the same click. Since I wasn't sure if it really was the A/C clutch, I asked my sister-in-law to plug in and unplug the relay while I put my hand on the compressor. She did it several times and before I could verify it was the A/C clutch...it stopped. At this point, unplugging the A/C compressor relay would not cause the click. Also, unplugging the A/C fuse would not cause the click.
I then turned on the blower motor (key still off!) and it didn't start running. I started the car, and the A/C worked fine! So I drove 50 miles back and forth to work the next day and figured it was some sort of fluke.
This morning I get a call that her battery is dead. I get home, put the charger on it, and as soon as the voltage came up a little, there was the click from the A/C clutch. Unplugging the A/C clutch relay caused another click. Relay in - click. Relay out - click. Same with the A/C fuse. Then, like before, plugging the relay or fuse back in no longer caused the click.
I do have the service manual and looking at the wiring diagram...the blower relay coil can only get power with the key in ACC or RUN. The A/C clutch is more complicated...it gets power from the SAME source - the ACC or RUN position on the ignition switch. But, ground is through the engine management computer (car is a 5-speed).
The only thing that seems to be common and could explain everything would be a bad ignition switch - the blower and A/C compressor power, plus the engine management computer all seem to be on the same contact on the ignition switch. The service manual ignition switch schematic is very confusing.
I don't want to throw parts at it...but that seems to be the only thing that makes sense?
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Our 2002 Passat 1.8 wagon has major electrical issues. Problems with the door locks, interior lights and believe it or not, the car will not start in the hot weather. The car also has to be started everyday or the battery gets drained for some odd reason...
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i have a problem with my passat.everything was perfect with my alarm and my doors.
one time i went to my car, start my engine, and then this BEEP BEEP BEEP was the whole time, and first i didn't know what that is. and then i turned on my headlight on and the notice god more and it did BEEEEEEEEEEP. the light inside my car did not turn off. after few minutes looking around, i recognized that my car things that i didn't closed my door, but i did. and my alarm doesn't work too, because it things my door is not closed, and it doesn't want to lock it!! what should i do? My car things that my car is open the whole time.
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I have a 2002 F-250 with a 7.3.
I have been having a no crank, no start issue off and on for a while. batteries are new, cables are new, connections are clean, and starter has been rebuilt and checked. I bought a "starter relay" which i thought was the top solenoid in this picture. I also replaced the lower solenoid in the picture. The bottom solenoid was replaced with what im sure is the correct replacement. The upper I think is wrong. It started but then shut down and will not restart. The upper solenoid also was very hot after it shut down.
Long story short what is the upper solenoid for? Im assuming its not the starter solenoid. If so where is the Starter solenoid on a 2002 7.3?
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My beloved 1995 Dodge Ram Van has intermittent dash panel electrical issues. The gas gauge an speedometer are intermittent, coupled with lights and radio on off too. It It all started when I had the transition services years ago. It has less than 100k mileage.
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Not enough cooling in the B5.5 Passat wagon.
I had the freon checked and it seems to be fine, however it takes a long time for the cabin to cool of here in North Carolina. THe air coming out of the vents doesn't seem as cold as my older 1998 Passat. I used to have a silver sedan 1.8T and the a/c was temperature was ice cold and it got very cold after 20 seconds or so. It reminded me of GM cars.
My wagon is dark blue and beige leather interior which is probably why it takes longer to cool off. If you go for a short trip and the car has been out in the sun it would take at least 15 to 20 minutes to get comfortable. The compressor generally cycles off only once and then it stays on for the duration. My old sedan was the same way. I use the a/c on the rec mode which keep the air colder but still not quite as cold as some other models.
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The sunroof drain clogged on my '02 Passat and caused major damage to my electrical system. Its at the dealership being repaired and insurance does not want to pay to have carpet replaced. They will pay for the padding but not the carpet, the problem is they say the carpet and padding are one piece and both would have to be replaced. I am worried that if all it is not replaced I will have a stinky moldy smell in the middle of summer.
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Today, when I returned to my parked car from grocery shopping, I noticed a strong interior electrical burning smell. Like wires burning or similar. When starting the car the yellow warning triangle came on and the hybrid warning message to pull over and park the car. What could cause this? Want to mentioned today was a very hot day 105. Up until today the car drove flawless.
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My car has the original battery and it hasn't given me issue. Even a few weeks back when most of the country was really frozen and the car was parked outside, it started fine.
Last week after a work day in the parking lot, she was dead-dead. No dome light, no cluster, no lock LED. After 5 minutes tethered to a friend's battery via jumpers, it quickly showed interior electricity but the starter strained. 5 minutes more and the car started like nothing happened. Last weekend after a movie, the car was dead-dead again. I opened the door to see if I could hear the starter to determine how dead it was and the dome/cluster lights came back and it started fast.
The car sat for 36 hours or so and started fine, even after pretty substantial temp drops. Got around town for the past 2 days, no issue.
Today the car was dead again. Jumped it off my Mk2 and went on my way. It started fine and got me to Advanced Auto where their battery tester read 400 CCA and their info showed spec was 430 CCA. They didn't want to sell me a battery yet and suggested an overnight trickle charge and to monitor the issue.
If it was just a dead battery requiring a jump, I'd replace it. But the other oddities + the seemingly good test #'s makes me wonder what else I'm seeing.
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My radio displays the word "Safe" when the car starts and will not work. I am guessing that the electric system failed at some point and I now have to put a code in the radio to get it to work. My question is: exactly what buttons do I push to do this?
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Have a 91 Honda Accord (automatic) with seems to be an electrical problem.After driving a while the Tac, Speedometer stop working and the radio cuts in and out. The car still runs, just a little rougher; when I turn it off it won't start, acts like the battery is dead. After it sits overnight it starts and then runs fine for a while or until it happens all over again.
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My AC clutch will not engage until the engine gets hot enough to call for the radiator cooling fan to switch on, which in moderate weather at highway speeds can be forever. (Single electric cooling fan.) Of course, the AC should override the engine coolant sensors and turn on the fan and engage the clutch. Once the engine is hot, the AC works normally. No one seems to know where to start looking. It's an '03 Grand Marquis with an interceptor engine package.
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My wife loves this car except when it won't start, and unfortunately that's happened from time to time recently. The first time was when we were out of town, when we got home, it wouldn't start. No big deal. But since then, it's developed the habit of draining the battery over very short times. We put in an after-market stereo a couple years ago, I thought that must be the problem. Pulled the fuse so it wouldn't play. Overnight the battery ran down. The battery is almost new. I took it back to the seller of the battery and had it checked. It's fine. My nephew told me that when he had a 1998 ES300, it had a similar problem. Obviously some type of battery drain, but I'm at a loss. The Lexus dealer cannot diagnose the problem.
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I have a 2007 Toyota Sienna LE. Sometimes after starting the car the ABS and tire pressure lights come on and I am not able to shift the car out of park. The dealer ordered a brake switch and in the meantime I would just push the override button on the gear shift to move it out of park. BUT, when I do that I loose most of the power (radio, clock, blinkers, power locks/windows/doors, wipers...but not power steering). The brake switch came in. They replaced that, told me the battery (which was installed in July 2010) was very dead and replaced that too. I drove home happy. Next day, ABS and tire pressure lights are on, car won't shift out of park. I manually override it, loose power in said areas and go straight back to the dealer. They said the power was so silly (my word, not theirs) in the car they couldn't plug it into their computer to do the systems check, so they traced wires by hand, took all the wires out of the "block" and reconnected them. Once everything was back together, car works fine. They said no wires were loose and they don't know what was wrong or why it's suddenly fixed.
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I have a 2003 Odyssey EX - everything was working fine up up to last year. When summer was almost at an end, the A/C suddenly failed. I pressed the 'Auto' button, I heard the compressor kick in and felt the slight kick/drop in rpm like normal, but after about 3-5 seconds the compressor disengaged and the engine went back to unhindered idle speed. The A/C console was still set at Auto, so i turned it off then back on, but this time there was no compressor kick in at all. At first I thought a fuse blew, but I checked them and they were all fine. I continued on my way and decided I would just turn on the fan/blower, but it didn't work either. It didn't matter if I set the console for auto or manual, heat or cold, when I turned the fan knob to any speed it would not turn on - with the following exception: If I turned it all the way to max and waited about 10 seconds or more, then it wold blow at full speed. Same would happen if I put it on auto and turned the temperature knob to lowest or highest temperature - after 10 seconds it would turn on the fan at max speed (since I figure consoles are programmed to go to max fan at temperature extremes to get to either one faster...)Also of note: When I turned off the vehicle, and turned it back on at a later time, the compressor again wold kick in for 5 seconds then turn off......and by the way the rear fan control works just fine throughout all this.
Since the summer was over, I didn't need the A/C and figure I would fix before the next summer. Every once in the while I would test again, and a couple of months later the A/C decided to work just fine for a whole day, but then it went back to the odd behavior
So now I'm thinking the environment console is busted and I need to replace it, except other things start to behave erratically:First was the break release for the transmission lever. I wold press down on the break but could not hear the 'click' that releases the transmission lever to shift out of park. That first time I just couldn't get it to work, so I used the emergency release on the top of the steering column, but after that I could simply pump the break or release and pump repeatedly until the click happened, usually took 3 tries. The funny thing is that this becomes consistent for about a week, and then months will pass with no problems shifting out of park, only to happen again for a week...
On some rare occasions, the interior lights don't work they way they are supposed to: They'll stay on when with all doors closed even when set to turn on only with open doors, or won't turn on at all with the same setting even with a door open (rarer still, will turn on with one door, but not another). I can always just set them to remain off all the time...
Same kind of issues with the rear windows and cruise control, most times they'll work fine, others they don't.
The only thing I really need to work in this Texas heat is the A/C, but before I go get an expensive A/C console replacement, or have technicians accumulate hours and hours of diagnosis to figure out the problem, I wanted to know if perhaps these are all related as an electrical issue with a buss-bar or a junction box - or a short from stripped wires in the harness, loose terminals, etc.
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I replaced both front hubs on my 1999 Jimmy back in April because of a bad bearing. About 5 months later the ABS light came on. I had the code pulled and it was left front speed sensor. I could get the light to go off by messing with the wires that come out of the hub but the light would come back on again after a short drive. Took the hub back and got a new one but the ABS light was still on. Had it scanned again and it said right speed sensor curcuit open. I can get the light to go out if I turn the steering wheel all the way to the left but it comes back on when I go back to the right. The truck needs a front alignment bad. Could the alignment problem be causing the ABS light or is my right hub also bad? Or do I have an electrical problem.
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My daughter has a 2005 VW GTI which has had a series of bizarre electrical problems. The latest was with the windshield wipers. Sometimes they work properly. Often, when the weather gets damp, they go on by themselves. (This is not a feature - they don't automatically go on when it rains, it might just be humid.) Sometimes, turning the front wipers off will turn the back wipers on. Turning the back wipers on will turn the front wipers off. The other day, she needed to drive 40 miles to work. It was not raining at the time, but it was threatening.
The only way to turn the front wipers off, was to turn the back wiper on. The only way we could get both wipers off at the same time, was to remove the fuse for the back wiper and turn the back wiper on. In the event of rain, she could then turn the back wiper off to make the front wipers go on. We have brought the car to the dealer several times. They replaced the relay twice. They swear they have checked the entire system and can find nothing wrong. The last time it happened, we showed them that it was impossible to turn the wipers off. They have seen the problem, but they still can't fix it.
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After replacing a tail light, my rear hatch quit opening, power windows quit rolling down, interior lights quit working, and also my key will not lock or unlock the doors. My first thought is a blown fuse. How did you solve it?
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Last week i took my '04 V10 in for tires/brakes/rotors with a local service shop. The next day they called saying one of the service attendants must have left the keys in the car overnight, because the battery isn't working right.Here is what happens (all within about 15 seconds)
1. Put key in ignition, engine starts normally
2. Multiple error lights immediately start flashing (engine, glow plug,tire pressure, etc, etc...
3. The MFI screen goes black (like the Tony Soprano finale)
4. the center console flashes "safe ..........." for a split second then goes blank as well.
5. the a/c does not run at all during this
6. the engine RPMs will not increase despite pressing on the accelerator.
7. the engine suddenly stops.
8. everything is then dead on the car.
This all takes place over about 10-15 seconds. This entire process can be reproduced by taking the key out and starting over. They are shipping the car out to a dealer for further evaluation, their computer gave them some sort of "battery learning error", but they were unable to reset it. I haven't heard of a dead battery behaving like this. The Touareg never ceases to amaze
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Car has been having a myriad of problems that seem to be related to the electrical system. First warning sign that something was wrong was the car wouldn't start up immediately after turning the car off. We had to wait between 5 and 20 minutes before the car would start up again. It was also revving up briefly at idle. Brought it into the mechanic, they replaced the power steering pump. We told them about the issues with turning the car on, they said they didn't see anything.
Car worked fine for a couple of weeks, then when we were driving a longer distance (more than an hour drive) the tire pressure alert light went on. We were close to our destination, so we drove and parked, and the tire pressure was a little low. We were asked to move the car to a different spot in this lot, and it wouldn't turn on. When we came back to the car (this was after flying out of down for four days) the car started up fine, and we filled the tires with air.
Next time we went on a longer drive, the tire pressure alert light went on again, but we checked the pressure and the tires were fine. This light turning on issue has continued, without seeming to be related to the tires actually losing pressure at all.
A couple of other problems that may be related. One, the car completely stalled out once at an intersection, and the battery warning light went on. I turned the car off, waited 60 seconds, then turned it on again and drove home just fine. Also, the right turn signal is flashing at double speed on the dashboard, but there aren't any issues with the headlights or taillights themselves that would cause the light to flash at double speed. The left turn signal and the light on the dash flash normally.
I'm worried that this may be indicative of a larger problem in the electrical system, and since the mechanic told us the first time that they didn't see any issues I wanted to get a second opinion before I brought the car in again. I also don't really have a lot of money to spend, so I need to know if this is a critical issue or just something I can ignore until I get a new car early next year.
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