99.5 TDI, can't reset the Alarm system...

Aarrggh! This is a first for me, can anyone help with info... my car is in a local parking lot. I came out of the store, unlocked my car - and then the car alarm went off. I can't seem to get the alarm to reset. I tried locking and unlocking the door, but it has no effect... the alarm keeps sounding everytime I try to start the car or open the door. ANY help would be appreciated!
Thank you.

OK you have to help us. Where is Atlantic County. You will have problems with assistance.

Have you opened all the doors hood and trunk and then re closed them?

unhook the battery let stand for 5 mins and then re hook up.

Also looks like you have funky..

PeterV,
Thank you for the response! I have opened and closed all the doors (rather haphazardly I admit), but I can't open the trunk. The trunk doesn't have a key lock, it is opened by an electrical switch on the driver's door. And since the alarm is tripped, it won't let me open the trunk. I did unhook the battery, but I didn't let it set for 5 minutes... I'll try that in the morning.
Thank you!

Atlantic county is in southern New Jersey. I saw where someone said a "$3 fix" is possible, but I haven't found that thread and have no idea what is involved.

Mega, what is happening is probably the result is a faulty door latch mechanism.

I assume when you say you unlock the door, you are not using the keyless entry remote and are in fact putting the key in the door and turning the lock. Is that a correct assumption?

When you do this, do the hazards flash twice to acknowledge the disarming of the alarm? If not, the door latch does not recognize you are unlocking the door. That is why the alarm is going off. It thinks it is being stolen.

Try turning the key in the door more than just once. It may take 5 - 6 times to properly trigger the switch. Keep an eye on your fender marker to see when it flashes.

Once the lights flash, jump in and start her up.

If the lights are signaling that the alarm has been disabled, yet the alarm is still going off when you start the car, there may be another issue.

Lastly, your car does have a trunk lock cylinder. If you look at the rear emblem, it will be dead center at the bottom of the W. You will see a slot just big enough to put the key blade in.

I have a similar problem, when I go to disengage the doorlocks by remote, sometimes the the rear taillight, headlight, and right turn signal on the dash will stay on till I repeatedly hit the remote, and then most of time it resolves, sometimes I have to wait up to a half an hour. I know for a fact it's a result of a bad door latch. Can that "5 dollar radio shack" fix it, or am I in for a whole new microswitch?

Bemegafunky said:

The trunk doesn't have a key lock, it is opened by an electrical switch on the driver's door. And since the alarm is tripped, it won't let me open the trunk.

Click to expand...

Unless your 99.5 is different than mine it has a mechanical lock on the trunk lid, in the bottom of the VW emblem. You turn the key a bit to activate the switch, and turn it more to pull on a linkage to manually open the latch.

-J

jay_fyp said:

I have a similar problem, when I go to disengage the doorlocks by remote, sometimes the the rear taillight, headlight, and right turn signal on the dash will stay on till I repeatedly hit the remote, and then most of time it resolves, sometimes I have to wait up to a half an hour. I know for a fact it's a result of a bad door latch. Can that "5 dollar radio shack" fix it, or am I in for a whole new microswitch?

Click to expand...

That doesn't sound like a bad door latch microswitch.....

Out of curiosity, how do you "know for a fact" it is the switch?

It could also be a bad emergency/flasher switch, a bad CCM, or something completely random.

Bemegafunky said:

... I saw where someone said a "$3 fix" is possible, but I haven't found that thread and have no idea what is involved.

Click to expand...

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=77648&highlight=door+latch+fix

This is the referred thread. IMO, the actual switches are not the problem nearly so many times as the 6 wires soldered through the circuit board close to the male plug. There will probably be two or more of these that need to be resoldered because the joint is broken. The broken solder joints here cause it to appear the microswitch is broken, but you really just need some good ol' electrical solder that has lead in it. The RoHS variety is too brittle, as these door latch problems are showing.

Fixmy59bug said:

That doesn't sound like a bad door latch microswitch.....

Out of curiosity, how do you "know for a fact" it is the switch?

It could also be a bad emergency/flasher switch, a bad CCM, or something completely random.

Click to expand...

Well I don't know for a fact I guess. I'm basing that off the frequency of the problem in these cars. Also when the drivers door is open it doesnt show the indicator light on the dash that it is open, as it does with every other door on my car. Which leads me to believe it's a bad latch because it can't read when that door is open or not.

Ok, that is definitely one symptom of a failing/failed door latch switch.

I have never heard of the problem with the lights as you are describing.

Although, I am not familiar with every sympton that a bad switch could produce.

I am sure someone will chime in if that is a feasible scenario.

It does sound like a bad door switch, They can cause all kinds of problems and then they will act normal for days. But the VCDS will show the fault, so that is your best bet to confirm it.
My 03 has been bad for over 2 years, sometimes the alarm will go off like yours is doing but if I just start the car the alarm will stop and the next time it will work fine. This morning the remote would not unlock the drivers door but unlocked all the rest. Later when stopping at Lowes I locked the car and the drivers door would not lock with the remote. Lights inside work one day , the next they don't. So the best bet is to check it with the VCDS.
I have been carrying the new latch around for a year now and hope to install it in October.

A special thanks to Robert Ford and to all who responded to my request for help! Your information was right on the mark... I got the car running! Now for a slightly different issue... my 99.5 tdi (and this has just happened) is running ice cold. I can drive the car a hundred miles and it never warms up. Can anyone suggest a trouble shooting method?
Thank you!

You should probably start a new thread, but I would check the coolant temperature sensor if the coolant hoses are hot after driving that long. If the hoses are cool then check the thermostat.

Symptom: Car never warms up, no matter how long or hard driven.

Possible causes: 1) bad water pump
2) bad thermostat
3) bad temperature sensor (i.e. the gauge is lying)
4) other mechanical failures: hoses leak, radiator is shot,
radiator or heater core obstructed, general leakage (o-rings).

1) a bad water pump: the original water pump has a plastic impeller that has shown examples of separating from the drive shaft resulting in no coolant being pumped.

Diagnose it: If the engine seems to be overheating while heat from the interior heater is nearly non-existent, you have a bad water pump. Also, coolant circulation observed at the coolant recovery tank will be very low, until the engine overheats, then it will be steam driven boiling.

OP: you did not say anything about engine overheating while driving it "a hundred miles", so I would say this is not your problem.

2) bad thermostat: The thermostat is relatively simple, and has a powerful spring in it so that it will fail open and not the other way around.

Diagnose it: The heat from the interior heater is warm but won't ever get hot. Upper radiator hose is warm but never gets hot. Likewise lower radiator hose is warm (cooler than upper) or maybe even cold all the time. The engine never warms up. The coolant recovery tank shows coolant circulation but not hot coolant. Fuel mileage will suffer.

OP: this scenario seems to fit your description the best. New thermostat, new o-ring, and pay attention to installation procedures. Do a search.

3) Bad temperature sensor: this sensor can and does go bad. Sometimes only the one reporting to the dash gauge goes bad while the other correctly reports to the ECU.

Diagnose: A good diagnostic tool that tells you what the ECU is seeing will help. Engine temp seems normal - coolant is hot. Interior heater is hot. Radiator fans will cycle (if it is a hot day and you're in Phoenix...) otherwise, if it is a cold day, this detail may not work. Mileage still OK. Just that darned gauge in the dash says the temp is low.

OP: If the above is going on, you need a new coolant temperature sensor.

4) All the rest. The current OAT type coolant seems to work pretty well, so radiator and heater cores plugging with corrosion don't seem to come up. The radiator core is a metal-plastic hybrid though, and they break sometimes with the tell-tale leaks. Hoses and o-rings don't last forever either, and neither do metal impeller water pumps. They all have o-rings that lose elasticity and quit sealing. Water pumps have bearings that die. Hoses split. With all these things, coolant loss will make itself evident by drips, runs, or the less obvious lowering coolant level in the recovery tank that the dash light starts whining about.

OP: If you see these things, indicating you're losing coolant, you have a bit of discovery work to do and then fix the offending item.

Good luck with all this.

Cheers,

PH

Robert, once again I need help and I don't know how to post a help request. My trunk lock stopped working. both with the button and the key. Is there a manual way to open the trunk? And the fuel door? Thank you much for your help.

Try this new search engine. Enter your search terms on the box towards the middle of the page.
https://cse.google.com/cse/publicurl?cx=018097697432185261444:_idbzjdyxdm

Mega,

Yes it is possible to open the trunk.

Here's what happens. The trunk release motor is mounted on a plate. When triggered, the motor pushes on a plastic lever that prone to failure.

The good news is that the lock cylinder has a mechanical back up linkage in case of battery (or physical) failure.

Put your key in the lock cylinder. Normally you turn it to the 11 o'clock position to unlock it. But all this does is trigger the switch to activate the motor (which in this case is broken).

What you need to do is turn the key to the 9 o'clock position. That will manually engage the trunk release latch.

Fuel door, not so easy.

I have heard once you get the trunk open, you can reach behind the side trunk liner and find the release mechanism and manually activate it by hand. But I have never done this, so I do not know what is involved.