[OT] B3 Passat Electrical issues... Oh gurus, help me!

[bmcgarvey at gmail.com (Brian McGarvey)]

Dan,
Somebody knew they had screwed up bits. Think about this. your trying
to sell a car you know is overheating, and you don't want the
prospective buyer to see you flip a switch to turn the fans on. Wire
it to the lights, nobody will notice. turn the lights on... fans come
on.

I'd say that that overloading cause you some problems..
check the current track for the lights. basically the electrical load
was at least doubled. Find the other things that share the current
track and check to see if it looks familiar to your current set of
problems.

After that grab a volt meter hook into the + side of the track and
chassis ground. and start turning bits on (switches and fuses). watch
what happens to the voltage. if it drops significantly replace the
feed wire it is probably degraded significantly. too much current for
a long period of time will make a wire a resistor a small one running
headlamps can drop signficant voltage and seriously limit current.

Bigmac .. BTDT.. I spend 6 years as an Electronics Tech fixing this
sort of stuff. Everybody's suggestions have been spot on. I just
figured I'd help a brother out with the fastest way to isolate the
problem.

Also if you get stuck pull the actual headlamps out of the circuit by
unplugging them at the light. tests for loads in the wiring harness --
partially. An inline Amp meter will also help. all bulbs should draw
similar current, and have same voltages..


On 3/12/07, DAN <sciroccodriver@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I figured someone might help me with this.... so drop your scirocco beanies for a second and help a brotha out.   ALL HELP will be graciously received and for some scirocco content get this.... I just got a set of schrick 268's with an adjustable cam gear.  I'll have it on in the next few weeks.  varrroooom!   I'm cross posting this everywhere and I apologize in advance for the length but I needed to be wordy.  Please CC me direct.
> This one is beyond me and its going to be long so PLEASE don't get bored... I NEED HELP!
> 91 Wagon... Previous owner said it had electrical problems (among many other things) so after I rebuilt a motor for it(water in the cylinder and cracked piston), complete exhaust, new rotors/pads, condensor, radiator, clutch, fuel pumps, etc etc etc I started in on the wiring issues.
> First up was the cooling fans that came on automatically whenever the light switch was turned on (either parking lights or headlights).   I found a couple wires behind the fuseblock that were connected to each other that shouldn't have been.  That took a while and was just a hunch so don't ask me how I figured it out... but it solved it.  (actually, there was black electrical tape on one of the connectors that I didn't think should have been there as it didn't match factory stuff so I disconnected them and waaaalaaaa!)
> Next up are the problems..... they were happening along with the "fan" issue and are still going on now... After startup, if you switch on the lights to either park or full headlights then the following stuff happens... clock dies, instrument panel lights typically don't work, tachometer goes limp and slowly goes to zero, tachometer will immediately zero out if I dim the interior lights out completely,  blue highbeam indicator is ON, Fuel and H2O temp work fine, and the red coolant light starts flashing.   That's not all though.... ONLY when driving, I get an intermittent BEEEP BEEEP BEEEEP BEEEEP warning from the cluster along with a flashing oil light.  I cannot get it to do the BEEP/oil light without actually driving.   The best part about it is that I can stop the annoying BEEP/Oil light by turning on the lights, thus, giving up on having a tachometer/etc.   Instrument panel lights are intermittent and all bulbs have been changed.
> Before you jump up and think you know what the problem is...
> Here's what I've done:
> -Oil pressure has been confirmed via vdo guage and electrical sender I had on my last B3.
> -Changed entire cluster out 3x with spares I've got
> -Changed light switch 3x with spares.
> -Changed both oil pressure sensors
> -Swapped entire fuse block thinking/hoping it was an internal short
> -Visual inspection of all wires from fuseblock to instruments/etc
> -Disconnected the following hoping to locate a shorting device (power window switches, heated seat switch, rear widow defogger switch, power mirror switch, power mirrors, rear ash tray light, cig lighter, front ash tray light, interior lights, visor mirror lights, (no radio installed and wires all good/no shorts/factory connectors still in place), and anything else I could find that was dimmable.
> -Disconnected fuses one at a time. ONLY fuse #3 stopped the problem with the instument panel(ie tach, clock, etc).   This circuit is for the instrument lights and a few other things.
> -Changed out all relays(crossing my fingers that they were good but all came off parts cars that didn't have issues like this)
> -Buried my head in all 3 years' wiring diagrams from the tech section.  I trusted and went with the '91 diagram but I still found inconsistencies (ie fuseblock connector D wire 9 was black/yellow on my car but the diagrams show it as either black or black/white.)  Anyways looking at the circuit for fuse #3 didn't cause me to come up with any ideas.  You got any?
> So, any bright ideas?   All help appreciated except advice on just burning the car with gas and a match.  Its already sold and the new owner would like this fixed.  Most of what I've done has been unplug/replace and the old electrical tester is ready if someone will give me some advice on where to start.   I'm afraid the problem is going to be a stupid wire connected to something that it shouldn't be (like the fans I mentioned earlier) so help me figure this one out before I pull my hair out.  I could really use some help from THE GUY that knows every wire in a B3.  I know you're out there.   Thanks in advance!!!
>
>
>
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