Help with rear electrics needed .please.

[Albie 0]

Hi.

 

Why the Firkin Heel did VW let an incompetent design the electric system in the coolest car they produced? Is there any truth in the story that it was designed by Bertone when he did the styling? If that is true, much is explained!

 

I have the cheap CD version of Bentley which is seemingly pretty common nowadays, but it is incredibly cumbersome to work with for electrics and it only really covers US models anyway so it may be a little different. I have also done some work to try to get to the root of the problem so here is what I have found.

 

A few months ago I lost both of my reversing lights, and while checking things out with the trusty meter I found that the heated rear windscreen had died with them. I thought of rear earthing points and checked them but everything seems ok there and the boot light and spoiler still worked perfectly.

 

It was easy to spot that there is no power for those devices getting to the rear. On checking further, there is no power getting to the switches. Fuses are all fine and the meter shows that there is no power getting to either side of them in their slots!

 

The circuitry for this all seems to be fed from Line 15 and the X relieved line in the fusebox, and other things attached to them still work so I don't think they can be at fault unless they are broken internally. The main ignition switch which feeds Line 15 was renewed late last year.

 

Most of this stuff shows as going through sockets K, P and F on the back. For example the crap manual shows that the rear lights and the demister are both connected to socket K so I checked that. It is clean, no watermarks and the contacts look fine too.

 

Now the spoiler has gone the way of the other 2! And finally to make things worse, the sunroof has packed up too. It was working perfectly and just stopped completely overnight, not jammed, no noise of any slack being taken up or anything.

 

Has anyone a diagram for the 2.0L 16V electrics which they can look to to give me an idea of whether my own version is correct? Or has anyone experienced this problem themselves. I hope I have not confused things with too much info but I always think that I should be trying to do most of the work and not you guys!

[mattkh 0]

Hi

 

Push all the relays in.

 

As the shops are closed, remove the X relay ..load relief relay..and clean the contacts and push it back in.

 

Check fuse 16 again.

 

If still not ok, then I suspect the ignition switch.

[Albie 0]

Thanks for the advice Matt, sensible down to Earth and very useful. I checked out the relief relay but found it was virtually brand new. It was perfectly clean and could be felt to click when the ignition was turned on. No luck there. Then I had a thought. I had assumed that as the problems were focussed at the back end, they must have a common cause. What a stupid assumption!

 

So finally putting my brain into gear and checking them individually I found that the missing reversing lights are down to the switch. A new one is being picked up tomorrow. (And why does it need to be so tall?)

 

The spoiler fuse was in fact blown, you were dead right to suggest checking fuses. (In my defence this was definitely not a problem initially, as I checked them all when I first lost the lights and demister.) With a new fuse in, the spoiler raises correctly but immediately blows the fuse again on trying to lower it. Anyone any ideas as to what this might be before I strip it? Is there a known issue with the spoiler units or is it likely to just need freeing and greasing?

 

I have made no progress with the rear demister and I still don't have a solution for the sunroof either. It seems to be a strange unit to get into. How do I get access to the roof switching and motor? I have tried just pulling the rectangular plastic trim cover off but it doesn't seem to want to come!