TDI in Nanaimo

[CWTech]

Hi. Just a bit of an intro. I've worked in the automotive field for quite some time, done my fair share of work on various VW's. Changed timing belts on various gas and diesels from various years. Even tangled with a skipped timing chain on a VR6 once. I currently own 3 Jetta's, an 86 TD I was using as my daily driver for quite a while.. currently has 493,??? km's on it. Has developed a bit of a starting issue. I suspect it's air in the fuel system as that's the behavior but I haven't been able to track it down yet and have stopped driving the car in favor of my 99 Cherokee. The second Jetta is an 85 gasser I picked up cheap to replace some front end parts on my 86 due to a minor oops on my part which left me with a rolled hood and smashed headlights and grill. Previous owner said it needs a clutch and the engine has low compression but will run if boosted as the battery is no good. I haven't had a chance to verify the low compression part of that but I may check into it soon and if the engine checks out I'll throw a clutch into it and sell it on to it's next happy owner.

Now the car I am most interested in is the 97 TDi I picked up as a project. Previous owner didn't do the timing belt and it went and took out a couple valves. Car has around 382,??? km's on it. I've replaced the valves, valve guides, had the seats done, new seals, followers, head gasket, thoroughly cleaned the intake, replaced the Turbo oil return line, the PCV hose, water pump, crank, cam and intermediate shaft seals. and a number of other smallish bits, which are somewhat hard to come by and fairly expensive. I was able to get the car fired up today and it seems to run pretty good. I am hoping to be able to order up a VCDS plug in soon so I can do a couple of minor tweaks and check my pump timing. It needs a complete set of brakes and then I hope to have it become my new daily driver. I've noticed a couple of minor electrical quirks that I am going to try and figure out in the near future. Perhaps someone here has run into something similar.

1. I've noticed that my interior light seems to stay on lately when all the doors are closed and the switch is set to door but it behaves normally when the key is in the on position.

2. I've also noticed that the intermittent wiper setting doesn't seem to work properly but that may be something I am missing.

If anyone has any suggestions of where to start I'd appreciate it.. I do have the Bentley Service Manual for the 85-92 cars but I just missed out on a half price deal for the manual that would cover my car and have been unable to find a pdf version of the appropriate one.

Thanks

[CWTech]

Another thing I noticed with the wipers, when I pull the stalk to use the washer function the sprayers will spray but the wipers won't move unless they are in the on position. Intermittent just does nothing. Perhaps someone else has run into this before on this vintage of car and can point me in the right direction or would be able to provide me with an appropriate wiring diagram or diagnostic proceedure for that circut so I can track down the issue.

Thanks and much appreciated

Colin White

[chittychittybangbang]

1. Can't explain that one, lol. Does it make any difference if using the passenger door? If so, you probably have a problem in the door handle switch or broken wire in the wiring boot in the door hinge.

2. How does it not work? Does it have a dial switch or is it the type where you have to turn it on-off to set the intermittent timer. I believe it's all in the wiper relay. If water leaks past the windshield or firewall the relay panel is right there.

For the wiring diagram you really need a Bentley manual or google for one.

[CWTech]

I made sure all of the doors are closed properly and the door switches, located on the pillar where the latch is located all seem to move properly. The light did work before and this behavior is fairly new.

The wipers are the older style simple intermittent with a fixed 6 second delay. I have read somewhere you can swap out the default wiper relay with some form of programmable one that sets the delay by the amount of time the switch is in the intermittent position that I might look into. There is no way to set the delay time by default tho. I have the 99-05 Bentley manual in PDF and the 85-92 in hard copy but that leaves a gap in the years right where I need the info from. Lol.

Thanks.

Colin White

[chittychittybangbang]

I forget if the Jetta has the same setup as the passat but check your door handle to be sure: http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/a...sat-repair.htm Also, pull the boot covering the wire harness in the door hinge area and look at the wiring. A very common problem is cracked wiring there.

[CWTech]

Thanks for the heads up. I've had the door lock on the drivers side repaired because the lock itself had fallen out of the door handle. The handle itself is a fairly basic assembly with a small paddle that engages a switch assembly in the door that actuates the alarm system and central door lock system. My door lock and handle work as required. In this vintage of Jetta the door switch, the one that actuates the interior lights, is located on the B pillar. I think I found a copy of the appropriate wiring diagrams on one of my auto repair reference sites. I'll see what I can figure out with it when I get back to work this week. My car is still sitting in the shop at work.

Colin White

[dieselfiend]

Colin
1. Check all your plunger switches in the door well. Mine did the same thing and that's what it turned out being.
2. Your stalk is probably bad. A quality replacement is available through auto zone for about $60. The stalk is fairly simple. When you move the stalk the lever moves the brush or copper bridge to complete the contact. The space between the copper pathways are plastic and wear out causing the bridge fall between two pathways making the connection to both at once. This usually causes a fuse to blow. Mine did not, however. Mine caused the wiper to get locked in the on position and then it just started freaking out. hope this helps.

[CWTech]

Well I figured out the issue with the wipers today. It was just a bad wiper relay. The relay was marked "169" on the top, Not sure if that's a normal one, I have seen reference to "19" and "99" relays. I happened to have a "19" in a box of bits and popped it in and my wipers began to work as they were supposed to, approx 6 second delay and the wipers activated with the wash function. I popped the cover off the "169" and found a couple of bad solder joints, repaired them and now it works just fine as well.

My next question is where do I find one of these infamous "99" programmable relays and should it just pop in and work as in the description I read where you activate intermittent, and then cycle it on and off at the delay time you want to set it at?

I have not yet been able to figure out my errant interior light issue. With the key in the on position all of the doors will activate the interior light and then turn it out once the door is closed when the light switch is in the door position. When the key is out of the ignition and you try the doors the light will stay on indefinitely. I'm guessing this is just a failure of the timer module that keeps the light on after the door is closed for a set period of time. The only problem is I am not sure where this timer is. Perhaps it's in the fuse panel as well but I can't seem to find a reference to tell me which one it is. The owners manual lists fuse locations but not module and relay locations. Perhaps someone can give me a little guidance where to go with this one, I would like my interior lights to work when the door opens if possible and to not kill my battery when the doors are closed. Lol.

Thanks for your help

Colin White

Originally Posted by dieselfiend

Colin
1. Check all your plunger switches in the door well. Mine did the same thing and that's what it turned out being.
2. Your stalk is probably bad. A quality replacement is available through auto zone for about $60. The stalk is fairly simple. When you move the stalk the lever moves the brush or copper bridge to complete the contact. The space between the copper pathways are plastic and wear out causing the bridge fall between two pathways making the connection to both at once. This usually causes a fuse to blow. Mine did not, however. Mine caused the wiper to get locked in the on position and then it just started freaking out. hope this helps.