Arosa Weird Electrical Issues

[mattmac1807]

Hi all!

I'm new to this forum so please be kind.

I recently purchased a '99 1.4 auto Arosa and have a couple of electrical faults which I'm not sure are related or not.

The central locking seems to make a meal of opening the doors; - When you turn the key in the drivers door, both doors open but it sounds as if there is a lot more going on than necessary. As this is the first VAG car I've owned, I don't know if this is normal but I have my doubts and if it ties in with the following...

There's a weird fault that's got something to do with the passenger door; - Occasionally the passenger door won't lock via the central locking. I've had the central locking lock the doors when the key is turned in the ignition. Recently I unlocked the passenger door, opened it and the fuel pump could be heard priming which normally only happens with the key in the ignition.:confused:

The fuel gauge doesn't display the correct amount of fuel; - When the gauge shows a quarter of a tank it's actually nearly empty! The cars history shows that a new fuel pump and sender were fitted. I've cleaned the contacts on the sender that's on the fuel pump but it hasn't made any difference. I would guess that the problem might be the actual instrument cluster but could all these issues just be something simple like a bad earth or dodgy connection?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!:1zhelp:

[mattmac1807]

A quick update,

I got a work colleague that used to work at a vw garage to have a quick look the other day. He rekons that the locking issue may be down to the drivers door mechanism as he'd changed a quite a few in the past.

He suggested that I take out the fuel pump and check the sender. This sounded like a good idea but I now wish I hadn't bothered. I cleaned all the contacts on the sender circuit board and things were looking good. However I ended up running out of fuel with the level reading slightly over a quarter of a tank!!

A couple more Q's: Does anyone know where the comfort module is on a '99 Arosa (if it has one.) I've looked under the passenger seat, footwell area and boot and can't find it. I've read elsewhere on the message boards that this can often be the cause of central locking/window faults.

Is it normal to hear a mechanical knocking on autos when it's changing to it's lowest range? i.e. when slowing to a stop or for a turning?

Thanks for reading. Please post any helpful comments/answers.;)

[Mike McKinstry]

Mattmac-did you resolve your central locking?