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Subject: (GTI-VR6) 25 minutes 'til darkness...
"Wow, the panel lights look dim...."
Saturday evening had an interesting ending. Specifically, me pulling the GTI
into the garage with a dead panel, nearly dead headlamps, and a rough engine.
One quick look with a DVM showed 7V across the battery terminals with the
engine still running, switching the key off brought it back to 11V (and
tripped the alarm somehow...).
Never once did I see an idiot light :/
Luckily, it was a short 12 mile errand, and the traffic was light. I noticed
the panel looking dim for about 10 minutes, and wondered what was up. The
LCDs started going faint about 2 minutes before I hit the driveway, and the
ABS light tripped on within 30 seconds of the panel going dead. If any of
you see this happening, it's a good time to pull over.
I let the battery charge overnight. Started it the next day with a 13.6V
battery, dropping to 12.5V when running, so there's clearly no current
from the alternator, yet there's no panel indication of a problem, either.
Let it run for 25 minutes, and slowly watched the battery voltage drop
through 11.5V, after which things start fading in a hurry. But, 25 minutes
was enough to get me to the dealer with a few minutes to spare. Recharged
the battery, and headed for the dealer Monday morning.
The problem? Apparently, they've been seeing a few bad alternator cables, in
which the connections aren't swaged tight enough for good contact, so they
begin to heat and oxidize, which serves to create a ever-growing voltage
drop across one of the highest current connections in the car. Eventually,
the cable ends up being effectively open. (does this sound familiar to any
of you long time VW owners? Will Wolfsburg *ever* condescend to using plated
electrical hardware? Arrrgh!)
Anyway, they replaced the harness, plus did the radiator fan recall during
the day, no problems. Checked the voltage when I picked up the car, saw
a nice healthy 14.5V charge.
I still don't know why the idiot light never showed. Until I can get my
hands on a Bentley for it to see the schematic, I won't know.
Incidentally, I used to be somewhat annoyed whenever the VR6 air pump switched
on; seemed like the all the lights would dim dramatically every time it kicked
in. Now it's not even noticable, and the pump sounds stronger too. (Still
haven't quite figured out what the damned thing does though)
So, if your panel lights start looking faint, it might not hurt to get out of
the middle lane of the freeway...
- steve
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Steve Cornelius
Chandler, AZ, USA
steve.SPAM_cornelius@tempe.vlsi<img src=/i/dc.gif border=0 width=35 height=15> (preferred) or SPAM_smmc@primenet<img src=/i/dc.gif border=0 width=35 height=15>
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(Steve Cornelius)