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Messages - caitlin

1
Engine & Gearbox / Re: 8v gti high idle when warm
I had some issues with my 8v idling high once warm, no idea how true this is as not exactly my area but was pointed towards the combination of injectors and modern fuel. now I make sure she gets some premium unleaded every few tanks (obviously some people will only use premium) and the problem has gone away - who knows if those things are really linked but worth mentioning.
2
Members' Cars / Re: Gordon the Golf (8v GTi 1989)
Oh man that looks a struggle, well done. Giving me the fear, I've just replaced a damaged caliper with a cheap AutoDoc one to get the car back on the road but also bought the seals to refurb the old one... Looks like it might be a challenge lol!
4
I.C.E & Electrical / Re: Fog & reversing lights ( & more things dying left right and centre)
So yesterday a mate who is much better with electrics kindly looked at this while I did a nice, reassuringly simple oil and filter change for him lol. To sum it up he says "the fog lights don't know the headlights are on" - if he ran ignition live from the headlight switch into the back of the fog switch they start working. He said he'd either wire up a new switch for the fogs independent of headlights OR I could take the fusebox apart and look for a reason they weren't communicating in there.

We ran out of time anyway and given the wipers / locking / washers not working either I thought better have a look in the fuse box and sure enough when I opened it today there was some minor corrosion but more worryingly, a small piece of it just .... fell out

Fiddling about the broken piece is one of the prongs of where relay #4 plugs in.

I wasn't totally convinced by this because surely by wiggling #4 it can touch one prong and you'd think that was enough, however, having put the whole thing back together and wiggled #4 NOPE NO FOG LIGHTS so looks like I'm off to ebay for a new fusebox (as Eddypeck said, plenty on ebay - which is good because from VW it's £600?!!!)

Will update once I've tried another fusebox ;D 
6
I.C.E & Electrical / Re: Fog & reversing lights ( & more things dying left right and centre)
Quote from: Eddypeck on
FYI, brown throughout the whole car is Negative/Ground or Earth. This is easy to remember if you think as Earth as brown... as in Mud ... earth, get it?

So I suggest your Brown/white combo is an Earth of some description.
The switch should illuminate with the dash lights, I suspect that's the grey wire (Dash illumination is usually blue/white but I'm sure in some instances there's also a grey).

Auto electrics are my weak point too, I'm happy with a bag of spanners but electrics do my head in.

I have a multi-meter now but for years I didn't bother. Instead, I use/used a small bulb as a test bulb.
A mk2 sidelight bulb and holder are perfect as there's two spade connectors built in...



Run a couple of wires off this, you can put a terminal connector on the end, a crocodile clip or whatever... or just leave as bare wire.

So, if you earth one end, a good earth is always the screw for the interior light switch located in the door shut, since I find I often work with the door open anyway. If you've left the end bare wire you can unscrew a bit, wrap the wire round and screw back up... this is proper hillbilly, but works.

Now you can poke your other end in places and see when your light bulb illuminates.

i.e. poke the other end into terminal 2, does your bulb light up? no, switch on the headlights, does it illuminate now.... yes. This is your dash illumination.

Hope that helps.

Other people may say get a multimeter and don't test electrics in this way.... but it's what I've always done to help me find out when a wire has power or not.


Thank you! I'll put something similar together when i get back to it - much appreciated :) and for the info re wire colours!
7
Members' Cars / Re: Dewie the 1.3 rebuild
I have a bunch of updates on this stupid/much-loved little car but forgot to post any / get mardy because i never finish it lol.

Today tho it's had a new accelerator cable as only one was dubious. The carb end of the cable wasn't the right fit (for once I'd bought a part from VW heritage so not sure how come) so required a little dremel work before it all went together. Still have a slight issue that you can "lift" the accelerator pedal too high but one thing at a time.
[
Bit of an update from the last year+, shortly after fitting the carb and the car running it just died and would not start again. I got separated from the car by lockdown then massively struggled to find the problem (had no sparks and turns out I have a passionate hate for anything electrical) but in the end it was the TCI control unit. Around the same time I replaced the distributor, HT leads, plugs etc. The interior is now refitted (except for the drivers seat and a portion of the material from the headlining) with home made foam seals for heating ducts and waterproofed door membranes. Wheels and tyres are waiting to go on. I've still got loads to do on it and  "uncommon" ly actually get any proper time as always lol but at least there's been some progress.
8
I.C.E & Electrical / Re: Fog & reversing lights ( & more things dying left right and centre)
So the descent into madness continues...
Decided to compare every voltage at the switch with my other golf, to try and work out where the fault is
Both cars are 1991 CE2 fusebox

The numbers 1-5 refer to the connections on the back of the fog switch, pic for ref below

# - colour - function for each connection:
1 - brown/white - unknown
2 - grey - unknown
3 - yellow/white - power to front fogs
4 - grey/white - power to rear fogs
5 - grey/yellow - power to relay on fusebox *according to a bloke on fb

On the left is the working car (although it only has rear fogs); on the right is the GTI with the problems

I'm ignoring anything that connects to 3 at the moment cos its front fogs (the working car doesn't have them), but otherwise there are some definite differences - whether off or on, the GTI has some voltages that i suspect shouldnt be there (connection between 2-5, circled in pink) and then when the headlights are on, the GTI is lacking some voltages (1-5 and 4-5 circled blue bottom right)

(side note - is anyone ready to stage an intervention for me yet?? my partner came out to "make sure i was ok")

er now my knowledge of electricals is poor but i'm thinking maybe i need to trace wires #2, #4 and #5 back towards the fusebox, i've got a fortnight of exams now but once they're done i've recruited a mate who understands electrics better than me to come look with me, so maybe he can work out what my "hElP tHe nUmBeRs ArE dIfFeReNt" means  :)
9
I.C.E & Electrical / Re: Fog & reversing lights ( & more things dying left right and centre)
Today's updates, lol:
- went through every connection on rear of fuse box making sure nothing loose (nothing was, and this changed nothing)
- tested the reverse switch on the gearbox itself, if i bypass this my reversing lights are back!! so ordered a new one and hopefully that part of the problem will be solved :))
- tried a spare headlamp switch as apparently on the t25s if thats faulty it can mess with fogs, sadly no joy still

10
I.C.E & Electrical / Re: Fog & reversing lights ( & more things dying left right and centre)
the plot thickens, going to write everything in one place so i don't completely lose it, please no-one feel obliged to read this unless you're feeling especially heroic lol.

dash switch
got worried that when i tested power to the switch, maybe the sidelights weren't on, so did it again
so tested it with sidelights - nothing
main beams - 9V
went back to sidelights - now we have 9v (????)

okay so if there's 9v sometimes, figured maybe the switch IS (part of) the problem
tested the switch in the other car, it never lights up, so swapped it for one which does
sadly this did absolutely nothing to fix the problem  ::)

water
Good news - I can't find any evidence of water getting in, but then I guess it doesn't take much and it's been a dry few days.

earth
there is a connection to the bodywork just to the right of and above the fusebox, which i assume is the earth - this seems fine at the bodywork end.

so now i am going to learn all about the back of the fuse box in case something is wrong there. according to the CE2 diagram from Monkey both fogs and "back up" lights (reversing lights?) come from "K" so i might start there, although some of the "K" stuff def works so not overly hopeful haha.
11
I.C.E & Electrical / Re: Fog & reversing lights ( & more things dying left right and centre)
Quote from: Eddypeck on
Don't want to panic you but the fuse box sits directly below a known water leak area. If you are unlucky and your fusebox has had water damage it can cause all sorts of havoc. But even worse case scenario isn't really a big deal. You can pick up a replacement easy enough and it's not a big deal to swap over. Good luck, please keep us updated


Ah, thanks for the heads up! I don't think water is getting in, but I'll double check.

Someone also suggested a bad earth so got a couple things to explore.
13
Mk2 Golf Chat / Re: Rear suspension 8v 1991 - one part missing!
Just in case this is useful... I don't have a side by side comparison but I found this photo of my rebuilt rear struts for the 1.3
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50095305072_12cd0735a9_c.jpg
and the "lower bearing" looks very similar to your new one and the strut went back on without issue.

It was a while ago now but I don't remember there being any bearing plates when I first took it apart either, the shocks had the lower support for the spring built in.
14
I.C.E & Electrical / Fog & reversing lights ( & more things dying left right and centre)
Please excuse if this is a bit long but I'm going a little insane here. Car is a 1991 8V GTI. The fuse box diagram in Haynes has proved unhelpful.

First noticed no power to the central locking motor.
Whilst testing stuff at the rear of the car, realised I had no reversing lights or fog lights.

Fuses on the fuse box are fine.
Removed the light clusters and tested them off a battery, they are fine. Bulbs fine.
Fog light switch on the dash seems to have no power to it at all.
Did some reading and thought it could be the relays. Swapped the 53 relays in spaces 10&11 in case one was a dud - no difference. Tested both 53 relays with a battery & for continuity - they're fine so not both duds.
Tried putting a 53 relay in space 7 as per some people online & Haynes - no difference.
At this point I realised the wipers no longer worked - they did before I started messing  :-[  :(

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated, I'm a bit alarmed by the loss of the wipers in case I've managed to screw something else electrical up in the process!

As for the central locking... it's now somewhat lower down in my priorities...

Thanks in advance :)