Headlights/Fan/Wipers not working.. help!

[swiss7]

hey guys,
Just came back from a bit of a drive (600ks) and the other night, I went to leave a small town after dinner and found that only my parkers were working (no low or high-beam). I later found that my fan, rear demister and windscreen wipers were not working either.

This morning, getting in the car to come home, I started it and tested the fan and to my surprise it worked. Headlights and wipers were also working.. I was all excited but much to my demise, a couple of on and offs and they stopped working again. The car then stalled (bad idling, another issue) and on starting, the wipers worked again for a bit. I turned them off, tried them again and nothing happened.

The car is an 85 Mk1 Cabriolet.

Reading around it seems it could be the ?power inductor?.. something like that. Someone suggested on a post to short the black and red wires on the ignition to find it that worked (to see if its ignition switch I guess) and it didn't work for me.

Thanks in advance..
Damien

[Oneofthegreats]

Sound's like an earth problem to me.

That or the dreaded fusebox flooding.

Was it raining heavily last night?

My 76er done the same thing. In the process of installing a wiring loom & fusebox from a 80 model mk1.

[Antdragonist]

yeh, mine was doin that last week.
just needed new ignition switch, the old one looked naaaasty.

[Campaign]

X-over relay

I think I remember having a similar problem - it was those things that usually only operated with the ignition on. the ignition switch was okay. I eventually found on the wiring diagram that there was a cross-over/X-over relay. By replacing that, the problem was fixed.

I can hunt for my information on part no. and relay location if you think that may be your car's problem too.

Paul

[swiss7]

Hey guys,
Great to get so many replies!

I suspect it might not be the ignition switch because I bypassed that by shorting the two wires in the ignition myself and the wipers/etc.. still didn't work.

It wasn't raining that much at all really. Had a bit of rain earlier on and the wipers were working alright for the whole time. Hadn't rained for a while when we had dinner and it stopped working.

Campaign/Paul: I would be interested to find out more about how you fixed the problem!

In the meantime I'll check for leaks into the fuse-box. I DID find a old rag stuffed up there so perhaps there could be a leak, but I don't even remember it being damp.

[ontarv]

i'd go the fuse box plugs
drop the fuse box and clean the plugs
in the back of fuse box
i lost one head light and eng fan
cleaned plugs all good
you might have same problem
mine was due to water getting in

[swiss7]

I had a look at the fuse box this afternoon. It is extremely clean behind there, all the wires are still taped together and everything looks good. The only thing I found was on one of the relays on the top left-hand side (looking at the front of the fuse box) had a little bit of corrosion at the base of the pins. I might have to check the connectors at the back.

Unfortunately, the workshop manual I got with the car which is meant to cover 85-90something cabriolets and siroccos appears to be for a slightly later model and everything is a bit different. Anyone have a scan of the fuse and relay box lists (ie numbers)? Thanks

Damien

[Golf Loon]

Hi swiss7

Welcome, shows us a pic of your beast.

We need to know where the car is from? There were no official imports of 85 cabrios, so your car is either UK or American.

The fuseboxes are very different in the two countries.

Also the fusebox in an 85 the later kind with the blade fuses. just want tio check, is this the kind that your car has?

Finally, is it injected or carby?

Id still suspect a leak above the fusebox, has happened to me on a few A1 chassis cars. Its probably coming under the bottom of the windscreen or through the raintray and just getting a few drips on the fusebox.

Id unclip the fusebox and move it around and see if any water comes out.
Wrap it in a plastic bag for the cheap ghetto fix.

[swiss7]

Hey Golf_loon

See
for pics of the car.

I am pretty sure its a UK import (though I don't have any history before 1987 which is when it came to Canberra).

I checked the fuse-box, no signs of water in it (I did take it out). Only sign of water is a slight amount of corrosion on the pins of relay 1 (at the base of them).

Its weird, I was fiddling with it a few minutes ago and everything started working all of a sudden! Then I switched the lights off, back on and nothing.

Am going to try and jump the pins on the X relay and see if that helps..

Oops.. forgot to answer: Its carburator..

[swiss7]

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/newf...ead.php?t=6993

[swiss7]

I THINK I FOUND THE PROBLEM!

I was fiddling around with the highbeam stalk because I read that pulling it back should allow everything to turn on. This didn't work for me. But then I moved it up a little bit and everything turned on! So its probably the indicator/highbeam stalk thats faulty.

Is this fixable or how do I go about getting a new one? Thanks in advance.
Damien

[swiss7]

Hmm.. I don't know if something else is wrong now but I can't get the headlights to work again using the above method at all anymore.. this is driving me nuts

[Campaign]

Relief/X-over/Load Reduction relay

Hey guys,
Great to get so many replies!

I suspect it might not be the ignition switch because I bypassed that by shorting the two wires in the ignition myself and the wipers/etc.. still didn't work.

It wasn't raining that much at all really. Had a bit of rain earlier on and the wipers were working alright for the whole time. Hadn't rained for a while when we had dinner and it stopped working.

Campaign/Paul: I would be interested to find out more about how you fixed the problem!
.

Sorry to take a while to reply - had to find my receipts.
My notes in my log book went something like this:
29/1 (Rain) Wipers not working, nor interior fan, rear window demister and fog lamps - no power to fuses.
30/1 wipers etc working fine
2/2 (Rain) wipers etc stopped working - left car under shelter - working again.
6/2 (no rain) Relief/X-over relay intermittent fault –> no wipers etc
Because the fault became intermittent and unrelated to rainfall, I concluded that the relay was failing. Since I replaced it over two years ago, the problem has not recurred.
I purchased the relay from Volkspower for $33 and the part number on the receipt is 7MO 951 253A

On my wiring diagram the relay was J59 and I think it was at position #8 on the relay panel.

I am interested to hear how you resolve the problem

Paul

[swiss7]

Hey Paul,
Turns out that my problem was with the ignition switch all along.. bloody thing! I also had some corrosion on a few of the fuses but I don't think they were to blame..

Thanks for getting back to me!
Damien

[Antdragonist]

HA!
now im not one to say to people "i told you so" usually,
but mmmhmmm... ill leave it at that.

glad you got the problem sorted anyway mate.