[Vwdiesel] 97 Passat Glow system

[Tom Krummell]

One of the lesser known failures is a faulty door lock mechanism.  On the
2003 Jetta TDI, glow plugs are intialized when the driver's door is
unlocked.  Been there, done that.

It normally doesn't get that cold in this area, but when it does, starting
becomes a problem just like Loren described.

Tom Krummell
Roseville, CA


On Sun, Feb 9, 2014 at 8:42 AM, <lbaird119 at aol.com> wrote:

>
> Not much to test when there's NO power getting to the harness.  :-(  Kinda
> leaves the relay or the fuse as the only other possibilities, other than a
> fried wire.  Don't think that happened and sure don't want it to be what
> happened!
>     Loren
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Val Christian <val at mongo.mongobird.com>
> To: lbaird119 <lbaird119 at aol.com>; vwdiesel <vwdiesel at vwfans.com>
> Sent: Sun, Feb 9, 2014 5:26 am
> Subject: Re: [Vwdiesel] 97 Passat Glow system
>
>
> Loren,
> I don't have a Passat, but I can tell you that the relay is a PITA on the
> LH TDI.  I have chased that goose, and consequently, have a spare working
> elay.  The relays don't fail like they did on the early IDIs.
> Before you do all that work...do you have a DC current probe?  Or could you
> uzz out the harness with a helper cycling the GP form inside the car?
> Individual plugs can be detected with an ohm meter, or even better yet,
> with
>  12V power supply (like a battery) with a current meter, to verify the
> raw.  Older GP had a habit of sometimes failing like a light bulb that gets
> ellow as it gets older with a small hot spot.  When they fail like that
> he continuity will be good, but the current draw, and therefore heat output
> ill be low.
> The TDI ALH plug harness has contact problems with corosion, and while I
> ave bought a spare harness, I have managed to get all my ALHs to run OK
> n their existing harness.
> Back to the relay/fuse.  On the ALHs that I have, it is a knuckle cutting
> 0 minute job, and I don't recommend it if you can rule out things with a
> eter.  The relay is in the wiper tray.
> Again, I cannot address the specifics of your 96 and 97, but I can
> encourage
> ou to use other methods.  Heck, once, I even sprinkled snow on the plugs
> hile cycling them, to see which one didn't melt snow so that I could
> ull it.  I am sure there are other ways to identify your issues before
> ou go digging.
> Val
>
>
>
>  Dad's car has been starting hard in this cold.  Starts but lots of
> cranking so
> e suspected all 3 glow plugs had failed (one's been broken off for years).
>  I
> igured that wasn't likely.  So far we found no power going to the glow
> plugs
> ut the plugs are good.  That leaves the GP relay or the fuse.
>    As I understand it, both are burried up where the sun don't shine,
> behind
> he dash somewhere.
>    Anybody know WHERE they are in there before I start digging?
>  Descriptions
> ay being a contortionist helps and if you know right where it all is, it
> still
> akes a good 15 minutes to check/change and that's with dropping the knee
> bar
> hich I was able to move in the past, but not drop.
>    I've seen a picture of  both but it was close in enough that you
> couldn't
> ell where it was.  Looked like a shot with the dash removed but obviously
> asn't.  Anybody done it that can shed some "light" on this?  Seems Dad's
> '97 is
> uch harder than my '96, as it has the relay on the fuse panel where his
> has a
> umper,  to power the relocated (where it's hard to find and get to).
>  Didn't
> ind anything saying if the fuse was relocated from '96 to '97.
>     TIA
>       Loren
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