Trip odometer resets to zero and clock to 12:00 at each start

dennisy

New member
Joined
Jan 2, 2009
Location
Richmond VA
TDI
03 Golf GLS
After a dead battery overnight and a jump start zI found this morning the trip odemeter reset to zero and the clock to 12:00 on each subsequent restart. Because the battery was dead and the radio was set to turn on starting, the radio fuse lew on the jump start. Are the two related or issue the clock/trip odometer reset a separate issue?
 

goodlylike

Member
Joined
May 18, 2009
Location
Chicago, IL
TDI
2009 Jetta TDI
You may want to have your battery load tested. I had the same problem on an 04 toyota solara. Battery tester showed full charge and no problems with the alternator. Every start the clock and trip reset. Had the battery load tested and bingo, bad battery. New battery, no more resets.
 

ubercam

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2007
Location
Hertfordshire
TDI
2007 Golf Match TDI 1.9L (BXE) M5
Similar thing happened to me when I drove way up north (Flin Flon, MB) last summer. Before I left, everything was fine. We stopped a few times along the way, no problems with the battery. When we got to our destination everything seemed fine until we went to start the car and we got nothing. Very odd, because it was like night and day, good battery, dead battery. When you got in the car, the lights came on, everything worked until you went to start then it would all just die. Jumpstarting worked fine, but as soon as you turned it off, it would be dead again. Turns out the battery had a bulge on one of the sides and was toast. It was the original factory battery and was 6 years old so no biggie really. Luckily there's a Canadian Tire up there and I was able to buy a new one.

Another issue I had once was a corroded ground caused some funky issues with the cluster and interior lights (background lighting flickering, cluster throwing all kinds of warning lights randomly, clock & trip odo resetting while you're driving...). I cleaned the grounds under the battery, and the 3 under the driver's side dash, but the problematic one was the ground just beside the driver's footrest. Once I cleaned that up everything was fine. I also added a generous glob of dielectric grease to each one so it wouldn't happen again. In fact that's good advice for any electrical connector on these cars. If you unplug it, pack some dielectric grease in there. That's fixed a lot of people's problems with the MAF on the ALH motors.

So yeah take your battery down to an autoparts store and get it checked out, and if it's ok, check your grounds (FYI all ground wires on VW are brown, and a Haynes/Bentley manual would help you locate them).

Hope that helps!
 

mellybear

New member
Joined
Nov 2, 2009
Location
NEW YORK
TDI
2003 Jetta GLS (not TDI)
Hello,

After searching the web I finally came across your this post that pretty much describes a similar problem I'm facing with on my 03' Jetta GLS.

Since I purchased it used in May of 2009, the dealer has replaced my alternator 2x's. First time was because the car would shut off, second time was because of the same issue, but they claim the alt was defected. Since then, the car hasn't shut off, but it does everything you've described in you post, but not all the time. The interior, exterior lights flicker, radio cuts out, at times ABS light flicks. Then as soon as I shut her off, the clock resets to 12:00 along with the trip. I had the car go thru diagnostics and the battery and alt checked good. The grounds were cleaned and the dealer and another VW specialist can't find a thing. They can't duplicate the problem or it needs to get worse in order for them to pinpoint the issue. Now that I read your post, I wonder if it has anything to do with the ground by the foot rest you mentioned. Is there a DIY guide I can follow or should I leave it up to the experts. Again, this problem occurs every now and then and I'm just baffled that not even a VW mechanic can't find the problem. Any suggestions?:(

Thanks for your time. Sorry for the long a$$ message.

-Mel
 
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