Door sensor and LCDs

[blk.raddo]

Doors and lights
I noticed my interior lights were ON when the doors were closed this weekend and found that my passenger side light on the door (red/white) was on. Slammed the door shut, light went off. Sat in the driver seat, light came on.

I took the door panel off, wiggled wires and nothing seemed loose or made the light go off/on when it shouldn't be. I found that the door open/close sensor is not a button on the body that gets pushed in when the door closes but rather its built into the "hook" that keeps the door closed. My thought is that something is funny/loose with that piece.

Anyone ever work with that? It seems the only way to get to that is to remove the metal sheet that is normally where a plastic cover would be BUT the window regulator is attached its seem. Will I have to disconnect the window to go any further?


Dash readings
So on our way home on Sunday, we stop at a rest stop and I notice my LCD reading were all jacked (I can put up pictures later). The time only showed a /, the shift display only showed an 'N' and my miles only had some areas lit. While tooling down the road, they started doing funny things, the most humorus being the shift display showing "negative" characters (black background, white letters/numbers) then they were all filled in.

It corrected itself by the time we got home and has been fine since.



Any thoughts?

Oh, and my A/C died for some reason. Great timing :wink: Are these normal issues or should I try to get rid of this thing?

[Brightdub]

Wow... I've never had any instances of that happening? Sometimes these things have german electrical gremlins that they forgot to take out after their work was done, sadly some of these gremlins were sealed inside the vehicle's panels and slowly die.... but for some lucky... or perhaps cursed gremlins... they somehow survive inside the car for years and they show you their wrath with the odd things you see every once in a while... like my windows not working on auto sometimes or the hatch not opening.... but hey... its just something you gotta get used to being a mk4 owner :-D

[RichB]

Was it very hot in the car and or was the car sitting in hot sun for some time before this happened? Educated guess is that some of the electronics on the cluster got overheated... started spitting out garbage to the display (or more likely the display electronics was overheated on not displaying the right info though it was probably being feed the correct info to be displayed). Once things cooled down and the car was restarted (rebooted! ha) later everything was fine again.

I once had the mileage and Odo reading (LCDs) on the B5.5 Passat I had disappeared for several minutes. Parked the car, restarted it later and everything was fine. Never did it again though... just that one time.

[lite1979]

First thing I'd do is call the dealer with your VIN and ask if there's any relays that have an open recall. I've never had a problem, but I was behind a silver 2dr mkIV golf today that had its reverse lights lighting up randomly while driving down Commercial Drive! I pulled up next to him and told him to ask the dealer for the brake light relay before his battery goes dead.

As for your door problems, it is not fun to replace that unit inside the door from what I've heard, but my light hasn't worked since I got the car, and I'm told I have to get a new one in order to make it light up.. Good luck!

[bearboy315]

Not overly familar with MKIV electronics but it is a volkswagen and we live in CNY... The germans use a lovely copper that isn't happy living life in CNY, so the first place I ALWAYS look is grounds, a small amount of corrosion can do wonders for electrical systems, with the heat and humidity we have had lately corrosion would be causing enough resistance for some things to a. Not work or b. Work sporatically, So as for the door go to the base of the a pillar pull back the carpet or plastic and look for a whole bunch of brown wires tied to a nut clean them up and see what happens, next look in the rubber tube from body to door funny who something always gets worn there. As for the dash, excessive heat from the panel or your radio will do wonders for LCDs if it continues look into taking out the cluster and making sure you don't have a four legged friend squatting in your car... And of course VW and recalls go hand in hand...

[blk.raddo]

Was it very hot in the car and or was the car sitting in hot sun for some time before this happened?

The trip started in Rochester. Things were fine until after we got off at the Canastota exit. Things were fine when I hit the exit but by the time we were at the SavOn it was all funny. It didn't seem any more warm than the rest of the trip.

First thing I'd do is call the dealer with your VIN and ask if there's any relays that have an open recall.

As for your door problems, it is not fun to replace that unit inside the door from what I've heard...

I'll try the recall route. I didn't think of that for some silly reason.

My beef with the door thing is that the "chirp/honk" when you arm the factory alarm does not go off anymore. I figured this was due to the door as the light stopped coming on when the door was opened some time ago. Jut an annoyance I should put up with.

Not overly familar with MKIV electronics but it is a volkswagen and we live in CNY... The germans use a lovely copper that isn't happy living life in CNY, so the first place I ALWAYS look is grounds...

I hear this a lot with VW's...joy!


Thanks for the input all!