# Mk4 Electrical Gremlins



## Einkaufswagen (Oct 25, 2009)

I posted this on the MK4 Forum and got wonderfull responses like lower your car and buy new wheels so il try here instead... 

So here be the problem in short my 1999.5 Jetta I have No dome or puddle lights. this is not the usual door switch / fuse problem... 

To help clarify 
-No lights with any door open (not just driver) 
-Fuse 14 is fine tested / replaced 
-Dash lights work fine 
-Windows all work via driver side control 
-No chime when door opens 
(Door switches were swapped with ones that i know worked still no chime or lights when opened) 
-No visible wire cracks / kinks in the door jams, but i haven't unwrapped the wires to check them individually. 
-Sunroof Works 
-The car when i first got it did have a leak in the back right sunroof drain which was fixed and all the wiring up there was checked out and seemed fine, but there was a good 3 inch puddle in the back right foot well so maby some wiring under the carpet was damaged?. 
-Also when i first got the car SOMETIMES the lights would work but they would be very dim and flicker/ stay on when the door was closed. 
-Also the ccm was swaped with one from a junkyard to see if it worked/ fixed the problem, and no luck but there is nothing to say the one out of the junk car was good to begin with. 

I have three culprit areas the back right C pilar area (Water damage possibly) the, front left Area below the engine hood lever, or the driver side door and everything that goes with it. 

So I am thinking that its defonaly a grounded wire somewhere but that's alot of wire to check... did anyone have this exact problem with there car? I have read forum after forum about similar problems but no luck in fixing my little electrical gremlin


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## Einkaufswagen (Oct 25, 2009)

Bump for someone that knows more about my car then I do.


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## SONETT-71 (Dec 2, 2004)

*Electrical Gremlins MK 4*

Look under the battery carrier. The main ground connections are located their. Disconnect the grounds and make sure they are clean. If not get an electrical cleaner or scrape the connections clean. Also check the wirning from the body going into each door. Those wires control more then the windows. The bottom door lights might be shorted. If all fails get a Bentley manual for the MK 4 and look up all the underdash connebtions. 

Sonett-71 

2009 VW TDI 3 pedal
2008 Volvo C30 Automatic
1991 VW Cabriolet (Like New)


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## Einkaufswagen (Oct 25, 2009)

SONETT-71 said:


> Look under the battery carrier. The main ground connections are located their. Disconnect the grounds and make sure they are clean. If not get an electrical cleaner or scrape the connections clean. Also check the wirning from the body going into each door. Those wires control more then the windows. The bottom door lights might be shorted. If all fails get a Bentley manual for the MK 4 and look up all the underdash connebtions.




I know the connections you are talking about there are 3 or so I believe and i already had them off and cleaned when I swaped a new motor in. There are also two under the windshield that i already checked / cleaned. I tend to think its more of a wire thats worn through and grounding somewhere. I was checking here to see if there were any common wear spots/ common grounding problem spots.

Is there any way to test the CCM for functionality? I dont think the Bently gets that detailed.


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## Einkaufswagen (Oct 25, 2009)

Still no solution
Planning to tear her all apart again and jsut start testing wire to wire


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## turboboost4me (Nov 30, 2004)

check the dome light the 3 postion switch to chose if it turns on with the doors are open or not there is a spring on the back side of it that will pop of and it will make it not have good contact


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## Einkaufswagen (Oct 25, 2009)

I am going to jump the switch this weekend to try to rule it out. if its nto the switch I am thinkign this is going to have to go the the stealership for diognostics >.< im sick of not having a door chime, interior lights, or keyfob/alarm that works...


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## Minervias (Feb 11, 2011)

I'm having is exact problem on my 2002 gti. It started after I installed new speakers in the doors, and it would actually stop and turn back on when I put pressure with my hands on certain spots on the door. I just can't find the wire thats grounding, but when I do, I'll post on here to see if yours is similar.


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## Einkaufswagen (Oct 25, 2009)

this is very interesting because my driver side door speaker is not working and never did since i got the car. This new wind in my sails makes me want to tear down my door tomorrow and fiddle with the speaker!


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## skip57 (Nov 7, 2008)

A BENTLEY would give you a color code to trace out and find the problem!!!!!!!! You need to do some leg work and find out if you have a power problem or a ground missing. You may have a connection at the fuse panel thats lose.


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## Einkaufswagen (Oct 25, 2009)

skip57 said:


> A BENTLEY would give you a color code to trace out and find the problem!!!!!!!! You need to do some leg work and find out if you have a power problem or a ground missing. You may have a connection at the fuse panel thats lose.


I have a bently and already check any major connection junction/ ground im pretty sure im down to tearing out the interior again and testing each wire for a ground. But its ****ing snowing out and I dont feel like it yet


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## skip57 (Nov 7, 2008)

So you are saying that you have power at the switch in the door jamb. can you jump the door switch and it still doest work the chime or light. I would check the light make sure it is good and check the chime is still in place.


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## Einkaufswagen (Oct 25, 2009)

I will have to try this as soon as all this bad weather clears. I plan on doing a tear down on my interior and swapping my door cards around so they are black with tan leather arm rests. So while i have it all apart i plan on checking all the wiring. 

Odd thing is again I replaced the lock module with 2 others from a junkyard to test that followed by pulling the current one apart to test the soldered points. all checks out 

It is very likely that the chime is gone as the previous owner did stupid **** like this to the car. but I am still leaning to a faulty ccm or ccm wiring. Because all the doors don't work not just one.

Once I tear up the interior again I will keep you posted on what I find, i know this is a bitching problem that alot of people have.


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## skip57 (Nov 7, 2008)

You don't need to remove the door panels to remove the switch. Remove the weather boot covering the switch you will see two marks use a small screw driver at the marks and pull the switch out.


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## Einkaufswagen (Oct 25, 2009)

Most of the micro switches are built into the door lock module I dont think I can access them without removing the module from the door. Its not like the older cars that have the switch in the door jam.


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## blazerpounds (Mar 19, 2008)

It's the mivroswitches built into the door control modules inside the door. It's gonna cause your vehicle to either not lock when you arm your factory alarm because it doesn't believe the door is actually closed, won't set off the factory alrm because it can't tell when the door is actually opened, or will constantly tell you your door is open via warning light on dash. Also may cause sporadic operation of all 3 listed functions due to faulty module. Vw lists new module for something around 315 bucks, or there is a diy out there that walks you through a fix if you're patient and have good soldering experience.


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## blazerpounds (Mar 19, 2008)

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?1542461

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?p=730184


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## Einkaufswagen (Oct 25, 2009)

blazerpounds said:


> It's the mivroswitches built into the door control modules inside the door. It's gonna cause your vehicle to either not lock when you arm your factory alarm because it doesn't believe the door is actually closed, won't set off the factory alrm because it can't tell when the door is actually opened, or will constantly tell you your door is open via warning light on dash. Also may cause sporadic operation of all 3 listed functions due to faulty module. Vw lists new module for something around 315 bucks, or there is a diy out there that walks you through a fix if you're patient and have good soldering experience.


If only it were that easy XD

The car still locks via factory alarm and key and is armed properly. And again i have replaced the micro switches once and even the whole door control module to no avail. 

Its verry akward 

I wonder if i can lock the car and arm the alarm with the door open. I will try this after work today. Maby that will help hint on what is going on.

And also the interior lights dont turn on no matter what door is open not just the driver side door. 

So i can slim it down to somthing that is not individual door related.


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## travis_gli (Jan 31, 2008)

Go to walmart and spend $20 on a multimeter, disconnect your battery and ohms test your wires. Where theres resistance or an open circuit theres a short. You want to do short sections of the circuit at a time to narrow it down. So at the light socket to the source of that wire. Also a test light and some wire w/ alligator clips on the ends may come in handy here (if you can't find anything w/ the ohms test, you'll need to reconnect your battery for the test light). Start at the lights and test backwards, eventually you should find the culprit. This is how any garage would do it and is your fastest route.


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## Einkaufswagen (Oct 25, 2009)

Yep this is the plan I am just waiting for 2 or so good days that I can tear it down begin the wire assault.


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## travis_gli (Jan 31, 2008)

Einkaufswagen said:


> Yep this is the plan I am just waiting for 2 or so good days that I can tear it down begin the wire assault.


:thumbup:


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## Einkaufswagen (Oct 25, 2009)

Alright ladies and Gents

After a few hours of accurate guess work, (thanks to all the good ideas) I found the problem!

Take a look...



















There seems to be a power wire junction (Aka a ball of soldered wires :screwy On this wire harness. Mine was completely shot and basically fell into copper powder when I touched it.

Simply cut up the wires and solder them back together for a fix!

All my lights are back and working. Except the driver side but I tracked that down to door switch being worn down so it dose not click in, to tell the car the doors open.

To fix that i just put a little bit of JB weld on the actual switch to make it a little longer now it engages and recognizes when the door is open / closed.

The last thing is the door chime which still is not working. My best guess there is either it was turned off with vag com by a previous owner or someone ripped out the speaker... 

So il take apart the cluster tomorrow and check things out.

I hope this helps someone with this problem. It certainly was a bitch to figure out but there ya have it. MK$ electrical gremlins solve. :beer:


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## travis_gli (Jan 31, 2008)

Einkaufswagen said:


> Alright ladies and Gents
> 
> So il take apart the cluster tomorrow and check things out.


I would never recommend taking the cluster apart they can be an extreme b!tch (I wouldn't recommend taking apart any cluster for that matter. 99.9% of the time the chime is disabled by vagcom. I'm pretty sure the speaker is soldered onto the board in the cluster so I couldn't think of a reason why anybody would unsolder it or have the knowledge to do so for that matter. Board desoldering is fairly precise work.

I think procedures can be found here... http://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/cars/vwmkIV.html
I wouldn't worry to much about the alarm... it's annoying as f*ck anyway. I have all the unneeded annoying warning alarms disabled.

EDIT: Found a DIY on removing the cluster speaker here... http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4047229-MK4-Jetta-Door-Chime 
Again I wouldn't recommend pulling it for this as I doubt it was pulled. I'm pretty sure the same speaker is used for all other warning alarms so try to pull out w/ your ebrake on or drive away w/ your trunk open. If the alarm goes off, it's still in there.


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## Einkaufswagen (Oct 25, 2009)

I am hoping it is only a Vag com fix. It would piss me off if the previous owner ripped out the speaker...

Maby il check it out today when I get out of work.


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## travis_gli (Jan 31, 2008)

Einkaufswagen said:


> I am hoping it is only a Vag com fix. It would piss me off if the previous owner ripped out the speaker...
> 
> Maby il check it out today when I get out of work.


I doubt they did... GL :thumbup:


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## Einkaufswagen (Oct 25, 2009)

travis_gli said:


> I doubt they did... GL :thumbup:




You underestimate what 8 previous owners are capable of! The last one being a do it yourselfer retard duck-tape baby.

Hopefully i will have it checked out today.


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## travis_gli (Jan 31, 2008)

Einkaufswagen said:


> You underestimate what 8 previous owners are capable of! The last one being a do it yourselfer retard duck-tape baby.
> 
> Hopefully i will have it checked out today.


Depends if they were elder owners or kids. Even if kids it takes a little sense to get the cluster out of there, let alone pull the speaker. So if it was a retard duct-tape baby he would probably scratch his head and give up.


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