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Several electrical problems - related?

knowncolor

New member
Location
London
Hello GolfMkV forums,

My ‘08 Golf GTI has developed several strange electronics gremlins over the past year or so - I’d appreciate if anyone knows whether they might be related or how I should approach fixing them. My fear is that a garage might just guess or replace many parts.

Car has 72k miles, always serviced at VW specialist garages every year and pretty much to schedule. I did let it run low on oil once (to just below the min line), and there is an intermittent (off for months, on for weeks) engine warning light which we found to be to do with where the exhaust pressure feeds back into the engine (forgive my lack of technical terms!)

Gremlins in order of appearance:
  • Slightly longer engine ignition time (but normal start once it goes)
  • Remote central locking takes many presses to work (especially boot)
  • Electric wing mirrors don’t respect L/R selector, often both adjust regardless of setting, but also sometimes work correctly
  • Front wiper speed changes itself, does not respect speed or interval setting although changing the speed often changes the wiper speed (just not correctly) and sometimes on intermittent mode the wiper action goes at max speed
  • Electronic window controls sometimes play up, first noticed when pressing both fully down that only passenger side auto opens fully, but sometimes driver side window does not respond at all until engine turned off and back on
  • Rear window heater turns itself off after a few minutes sometimes
  • Remote locking stopped working, opening door with key sometimes sets off alarm until key turned in ignition, central locking from door button works fine
  • Dipped headlight bulb blown (could just be wear and tear as works fine after replacement bulb)

A strange set of problems - I look forward to any advice and can give any more info if requested!
Thank you!
 

harp86

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
York
Car(s)
MK5 Golf GTI
I know this may be a daft suggestion but what state is your battery in?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
 

MagicMK

Drag Racing Champion
Location
PA
A couple things - and we are talking about an over decade old VW GTI and not a Toyota Camry (I have an '08 as well, btw).

First off, and, again, given age, you are lumping some things together that may have come with age and VW design, but aren't necessarily related. I noticed a lot of your issues keep tying back to the driver door and the locking system. GTI's of this vintage are known to have door lock issues. I, personally, have an intermittent problem with my remote not working for UNLOCKING, while locking works all of the time (and it has a fresh battery in remote as well). Pro Tip on unlocking the car with the key..... insert the key into the door, and then turn to the left to unlock and HOLD it there for a second or two. This will disable the alarm, and stop the alarm from tripping when you open the door.

Secondly, some of the issues don't seem like too much of an issue. The rear defrosters are set on some sort of a timer, so this does not seem to be a very serious issue. Also, it appears the mirrors do work, but you are having intermittent problems -- not a huge issue if you don't adjust them much, but, again, this ties back to the door electronics, and the MKV's are known to have door locking issues (so, mirror seems less of a surprise). I don't know there are any easy fixes here other than possibly unplugging and plugging back in the harness in the door a few times... otherwise, you might be looking at replacing out the switchgear.

Third, the slightly longer ignition time could be tied to the battery being old, as well as the plugs and coils never being changed... could even be fuel related if it was something more serious, but you'd need to comment on the state of your battery, your ignition system (plugs and coils), and have you changed out your cam follower - that is linked to the HPFP after all?

Finally -- the headlight bulb thing adds another issue, but I don't think there's any evidence that it's even a problem, let alone linked to your other issues. Headlight bulbs fail for various reasons over time.

Without more info about your car and/or a scan, it's really difficult to say beyond using some logic about this breed of car. Maybe some others can opine on my analysis and guesses.
 

vwengineer

Ready to race!
Location
Switzerland
Also for the mirror, there is a setting so that the driver mirror adjust both mirrors simultaneously while passenger only adjust passenger side. I disabled it on VCDS and it's fine. Get your car scanned as a first step, most electrical issues are recorded.
 

MagicMK

Drag Racing Champion
Location
PA
Also for the mirror, there is a setting so that the driver mirror adjust both mirrors simultaneously while passenger only adjust passenger side. I disabled it on VCDS and it's fine. Get your car scanned as a first step, most electrical issues are recorded.

Just noticed your loc was Switzerland... Guten Tag! Two quick questions - which Canton, and how much is gas per gallon (taking into account it's sold in liters)?

Also, when I scanned my car recently with my Autel MX808, I noticed it recorded an issue with the woofer in the passenger side door that I hadn't yet noticed just by listening. Shortly thereafter I noticed the driver side door speaker sound extremely muddy. I was just impressed that a 2008 was even recording the performance of the audio system.
 
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