[Vwdiesel] Diagnosing a failed alternator, or?

[Tad]

Instrument panel would go dead but alt light would come on....?  dead like
no gauges lights at all other than the alt light?  Intermittently or
continuously?  Does the light stay on when the cluster goes dead?

Hard to say without a voltmeter but it seems to me that with all the load,
the battery should be dead by now if the alt wasn't charging!

As for cause, I'm sure you've guessed maybe the moisture is shorting
something inside the dash.  The only other thought I had (related) is the
dread coolant migration syndrome, which I think was known to occur on 02
models... where the coolant level sensor in the overflow tank had a flaw
which allowed pressurized coolant to make its way into the harness and
cause havok at random places in the car's electrical system.


On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 7:43 AM, Val Christian <val at mongo.mongobird.com>
wrote:

> Has an ALT light on a 02 TDI Jetta, and presumed I had a failed overrunning
> clutch, or possibly brushes.
>
> On test run, (saving lots of details) it was found that the instrument
> panel
> would go dead, but the ALT light would come on.  No voltmeter in hand, but
> looking at the interior lamp temperature, and adding load, and shedding
> load,
> it appears that the ALT may be working OK.
>
> I found the car with lots of frost on the interior.  The normal driver only
> uses defrost heat, and then minimal, and relies on heated seats for warmth.
> The car is idling (temp is up to 12F) and I have lots of load on, and the
> blower on low and the temp setting on high, in an attempt to dry the car
> out.
>
> Has anyone had a similar problem?
>
> Thanks.
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