[Vwdiesel] TDI electrical weirdness

[S. Shourds]

Erik Lane wrote:
> Sounds like you have dirty contacts in there. Maybe burnt up? Usually 
> you can pry apart the old one for an autopsy. You'll most likely be 
> able to see the problem visually. With the current draw you get a high 
> resistance connection inside there and it will eat up the voltage as 
> well as heat up and make things worse inside the switch. Sometimes you 
> can clean up the contacts, put a little more dielectric grease in 
> there and be good to go. Maybe you have too much current trying to go 
> through the switch? If you put in a relay so that the current going 
> through the switch was less it should lengthen the life. Though that 
> is how it should be wired from the factory. Have you changed anything, 
> or is there something a previous owner might have done? It could be 
> something is wired to the switch when it should be off of the output 
> of the auxiliary relay. (Load reducing, current reducing)
>
> Erik
>
Hmmm....that's generally along the lines my limited knowledge was trying 
to take me.  I briefly pulled the old one apart, but it was dark and 
about the time I chucked it somewhere down in the footwell in disgust.  
As far as I know, nothing extra was added by the previous owner, but as 
this is the GLS version, there's not a whole lot more to add.  As 
someone used to the more spartan A1 & A2 body cars, the only thing this 
one doesn't have is a jacuzzi.  It is possible that there is some 
current leakage from that circuit that's running up the flow through 
that terminal thus burning it up.  I really wouldn't look forward to 
finding that.  I like the idea of wiring in a relay though I do have 
some concerns that if there is that much more current going somewhere 
than the switch is able to support, should I be feeding it a bigger supply?

-Shalyn