Passat 1.9 TDI 130 central locking funny

[clunesy]

Hi all,

hoping someone can help out a noob before I get into 'deep water'. I've just bought a 2001/Y 130 diesel Passat off a 2nd hand car dealer. I was happy with the deal. Only 35k miles, fVAGsh, for £5000. I called the dealer who'd done the serrvicing before buying to check all was in order. They confirmed all the stamps in the book, but also mentioned it had been treated for 'water ingress' last time it was in. Now after reading CCH horror stories here, it occurred to me the car may have smelt very slightly damp, so I've just run out and checked all the footwells in a blind panic. The car has been in the rain for several days, and all carpets are DRY (breathes sigh of relief). But what would VW garage have done to fix the water ingress problem. Is there a mod for these cars ?

More importantly - the actual fault I'm worried about is an intermittent central locking thing. When I test drove the car, the central locking 'self-triggered' a couple of times, causing the whole system to clunk-click. The main condition of the sale was that the dealer had this repaired by one of his contacts, allegedly a VW 'specialist', which was arranged. Sadly I've been driving the car for a week, and its still doing it, albeit very intermittently. What's interesting and forgive me describing this in lay terms. When you sit in the car and lock it with the key remote rather than the door switch, it arms the alarm, and then the locking can't be operated from the door. That seems to be standard behavoiur. What's interesting is that when the spontaneous clunk happens, the driver door unlocks - interior light comes on and the system can only be reset from the key, NOT from the door lock switch. So its almost as if a phantom 2nd key is being used to unlock the system. Could this be a problem with the keys or key batteries ?

The dealer has agreed to get his man to have another crack at the car, but what did he miss the first time ? Please say this isn't related to the water ingress / CCH !!

many thanks

Niels

[sherlockuk]

I had a very similar problem on my 02 passat. The passenger footwell was damp and eventualy my alarm would just go off for no reason, also the central locking was playing up alot! It turned out to be the water corroding connections in some of the electronics. This was fairly easily fixed as it turned out.

If you lift the carpet in the passenger footweel you will see a whole lot of connectors where the door pillar is. Water leaks in through the pollen filter housing and down the looms, hence corroding the contacts. I disconected all the connectors and dried them, and scaped off any corrosion, then sprayed the contacts with some WD40 for safetys sake. This immediately cured the alarm fault and central locking faults. There is alot of sound proofing material on those carpets so it may be damp underneath. Also under the carpet in the middle of the passenger floor is the control unit for the A/C and other internal electrics, this is not in a water tight box so make sure there isn't any water in it. Dry it and clean the connectors if there is!

The fix for the pollen filter leak is covered quite well in this guide: http://www.weirdlittlebiscuit.com/passat/leak/

I didn't replace the gasket with a VW part for the pollen filter as they don't look like they will last long. I used some bathroom silicone sealer to do the job... No problems so far, it has had a good test over the past few miserable days!!

Hope that this helps you. :D

[clunesy]

many thanks for your help

Next Instalment : Have now spoken to the guy who has just looked at the electrics. He is fully conversant with ingress / CCU problems, he is an ex-VAG engineer. He said that he could tell the CCU had been replaced when VW fixed the water ingress, and the car is bone-dry. He said he wasn't 100% with the new wiring however. He had made good a few of the connections, but suspects there is still a short or bad ground somewhere.
Since we established that the water damage work was done by VW fairly recently he suggested I might have comeback there.

I'm going to contact Citygate again to find out the exact date of the water ingress work - does anyone know, what is the manufacturer and dealer warranty situation with regrards to water ingress problems ?

than

[Intake]

Clunsey,

See my contribution today on exactly the same model - the simple problem of a loose fuse - worth trying and dirt cheap!

Intake

[Shak]

I too have a simular type of problem on my 2001 y passat. When i lock the door using the lock button on the inside all the doors lock apart from the passenger side door, which locks and the immediately unlocks. also when the passenger side door is opened the interior light dosn't come on. Plus (I dont think this is related to this problem or maybe it is) when I use my wipers on the intermitent cycle they only wipe once and the stop.
I've also had water coming into the car via the drivers side door due to dodgy window replacement. I sorted that out by using some silicone and its done the trick. As for the door and wipers how difficult is it going to be removing the carpet to get to the wires to see for corrosion?
Cheer:zx11:

[RichardStanton]

I have excaclty the same problem with my locks. the passenger door thing lock and unlocks when you press the button inside. And press the lock button on the remote three times and the passenger door opens/. Any ideas why?

[sherlockuk]

All i can say is to lift the carpet and see if it is damp under there. If it is, then probably you will need to fix the leak under the pollen filter if you have not already done so.

I have never fully removed the carpet, but I got at the passenger foot well by lifting it as much as I could and it give me enough room to get at the elctrical connectors on the passenger door pillar. Give these a good clean ande any other connectors going into the control unit on the floor in the middle of the passenger footwell. This will hopefully sort out your problems. If not then I expect you will have to delve deaper, beyond my realms of experience on this matter :Blush: