No Indicators/Wipers

[rhyno]

Hello All,

I hate to make my first post a bad one, but unfortunately i'm having some troubles with my recently acquired Bora 4mo.

I bought this car without the aftermarket sound system fully working, don't ask me why... and needed to run an accessories feed to the boot for the amps. I found a feed at the fuse box and soldered on to it without cutting anywires, then heatshrunk it etc. The feed that i used was the same one as the head unit was using for its ACC feed.

I ran my cable to the amp and voila! sound! a few hours later i went for a drive and found that i had no indicators. No fuses were blown. Hazards still worked.

I've been researching this on the net for a few hours now, and have now discovered that the wipers do not work either.

Its seems that the same fault has been had on the UK VWAudi forum and has been described as one of two things:
1.X Relay Failure
or
2. convenience control module needs to be unplugged and then reconnected.

This is where the trail goes cold...
Does anyone know where i might find either of these two parts?

Thanks for your help.

Ryan.

[graeme86]

The wiper relay is under the drivers side dash on the relay plate - it is the only double size relay plugged in (big rectangular one)

The indicator relay is integrated into the hazard switch itself (if you are looking for that)

The Comfort Control Module is the black box straight up above the relay plate under the dash which is screwed onto a bracket on the steering column - it will have a 23 pin blue plug in it.

You have to pull the big cover off the side of the dash where the fuses are before you can remove the right hand under dash knee panel. Then you can get to the relay plate and CCM.

You will also be pleased to then see that there are accessory feed terminals already mounted under the relay plate for you to use when adding stereos etc.

You just need to add a proper sized fuse in any feed from them (as the terminals are only fused with 40 and 50 Amp fuses which are on top of the battery, so way too high for any circuit you might add)

[Golf Loon]

Do the hazzard flashers work?

If you disconnect the wire you added, does it fix the problems??

[balkanac]

take the positive terminal off the battery and leave it off for 20-30 min. that will reset the whole car. See if that helps

[rhyno]

Do the hazzard flashers work?

If you disconnect the wire you added, does it fix the problems??

Hazzards Work Fine.
I disconnected the wire i added to no avail.

[rhyno]

take the positive terminal off the battery and leave it off for 20-30 min. that will reset the whole car. See if that helps

I've just tried this and had no luck...
This would have the same effect as disconnecting the CCM directly, yes?

Anyone got any other ideas?

[rhyno]

You will also be pleased to then see that there are accessory feed terminals already mounted under the relay plate for you to use when adding stereos etc.

Yeah i saw that there when i was looking for the fault. Very Handy. Thanks for the tips.

[gavs]

rhyno, I had a similar situation to you when I bought my last car. It had a very dodgy install done by the previous owner and the only way I fixed it was to rip out all the wiring he had done (the old twisted wires and electrical tape trick!!) and replace it with a much better and safer setup.

If I was in your shoes, I would do this:

1) Disconnect your entire stereo and see if oyur wipers and indicators come back. If not, something has probably gone pop and either your relays are fried (rather unlikely) or a fuse has gone (not always visually evident).

2) JB HiFi, Jaycar etc. They sell stereo install kits, buy one of these and start from scratch.

3) You mentioned that you were running an ACC wire to the amps that you spliced into a wire from the fuse box. From the numerous installs i have done, you are meant to run a constant power, either from a "hot" wire or directly from the battery, this coupled with a big in-line fuse. This and your ground wires, especially with multiple amps, should be no smaller than 10mm diameter. The switching for the amps should be provided by your signal or remote wires.

4) If things still aren't working, then there is most likely a fault in the way the head unit was originally installed, not unlikely either, depending on the installer they would have either used a proper ISO plug or just cut and joined wires. Hopefull the first option is what they did!

[rhyno]

rhyno, I had a similar situation to you when I bought my last car. It had a very dodgy install done by the previous owner and the only way I fixed it was to rip out all the wiring he had done (the old twisted wires and electrical tape trick!!) and replace it with a much better and safer setup.

If I was in your shoes, I would do this:

1) Disconnect your entire stereo and see if oyur wipers and indicators come back. If not, something has probably gone pop and either your relays are fried (rather unlikely) or a fuse has gone (not always visually evident).

2) JB HiFi, Jaycar etc. They sell stereo install kits, buy one of these and start from scratch.

3) You mentioned that you were running an ACC wire to the amps that you spliced into a wire from the fuse box. From the numerous installs i have done, you are meant to run a constant power, either from a "hot" wire or directly from the battery, this coupled with a big in-line fuse. This and your ground wires, especially with multiple amps, should be no smaller than 10mm diameter. The switching for the amps should be provided by your signal or remote wires.

4) If things still aren't working, then there is most likely a fault in the way the head unit was originally installed, not unlikely either, depending on the installer they would have either used a proper ISO plug or just cut and joined wires. Hopefull the first option is what they did!

1) Yeah, Its bad, there are joins all over the place where wires were too short, etc. I intend to replace all the wires as i get the time.

2) I'll look into this, i take it that the kits are just the correct plugs?

3) I ran a fused cable (10mm) (rated to 120 Amps) from the battery, the ACC feed is an excitation wire to turn the amp on with the ignition.

4) The head unit worked fine, i just needed to get a feed to the acc on the amp, i will replace all the cables anyway becuase it's simply unsafe.

When I opened the fusebox for the first time i noticed that there has been something in there at some stage and its caught fire. My guess is the fog lights weren't run off a relay initialy.

I think i will test all the fuses with a multimeter and see if one is broken, it seems to be a Convenience Module Fault, I'd say its not getting any power. I'll test it after work and let you know how i go...

Thanks for your help.

[gavs]

The kits come with the wires you need in different guages, they come with cable ties, eyelet fittings, a big-ass fuse for your hot line, RCA plugs etc, I see you're in dromana so pop up to the JB in frankston and have a look, if you go mid-week you might actually get a guy in the car audio section that knows his stuff and might be able to shed some info on your dilemma too.....

[rhyno]

Thanks Gav,

I've got plenty of good cable here, i'm a switchboard builder and have thousands of meters of high quality flex cable, bushes, fuses, joiners, and tools.
I don't think that the problem lies within the Stereo/wiring itself. I believe in adding the ACC i have damaged something else, however i will be checking the lot.

Thanks for your help, i'll keep you updated as to the progress/cause.

Regards,
Ryan

[rhyno]

OK,
Checked all fuses in the fuse box with a multi meter, all are fine.
Checked the two large 15A blade fuses above the relay rack, these are fine(BTW, what are they for?)
I notice that (from left to right) i have two relays, then a gap then another relay, then a double relay. The gap has a socket there (ie not unused). Is something missing? What is it?
Whilst i am learning the electrics of my car; what are the relays functions? I can't seem to find any documentation on this model.

I honestly don't think the wiring in the stereo is the fault, let me explain why:
When i bought it, the head unit was installed (badly). It has a remote "brains" unit which was located in the first aid compartment. The head unit had power, the brains did not. The speaker cables were all located in the boot. Two amps were loose in the boot for me to "just connect up". There was no feed of constant power, not acc in the boot. I ran a 10mm2 flex cable straight from the battery via an inline fuse to the boot and split it to feed the constant on the 'brains' and the amps. I ran out of time at this point and tapped in to the constant and bridged to the acc terminal on the amp via a switch. The sound system worked. (except for all the wires in the splits which had come loose, but that is a story for another day).
I still had Wipers, I still had Indicators.

Come Sunday morning i had time to run an accessories feed to the boot. I used the fused side of the bottom middle fuse. This turned on and off the head unit when i pulled it in and out, so i thought i'd continue to use this for sound accessories.

This is when my problems, as described above, started.

[rhyno]

It's all sorted now.

Behind the fuse panel there were two standard VW wires, joined together to a retrofitted in line fuse, which i assumed fed power to the amps or something. I removed the inline fuse and joined the two wires together.
That inline fuse was feeding power, not taking power. I have no idea why this is the case, but it is. So we have given it power and put it happily back in the fusebox.

ahhhh, all happy.

Thanks for everyones help by the way.

[gavs]

Glad it all worked out rhyno!

Welcome to the forum by the way!