"Door Open" Light and Alarm Strangeness

libbybapa

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'83 AHU mTDI high top Vanagon, '84 AHU mTDI pop top Vanagon, '85 Franken-mTDI Adventurewagen Vanagon, '91 Vanagon ALH mTDI tin top auto, '02 Jetta eTDI Wagon, '02 Jetta eTDI Sedan
This seems to be an unusual situation that does not fit with most of the threads I have read.

I have an '02 Jetta. Recently the alarm started going off seemingly randomly. Also, the 'door open' light would occasionally come on randomly while driving. I thought that probably the issue was a microswitch in the lock mechanism. A couple weekends ago I doused each of the door lock mechanisms with penetrating oil and then with contact cleaner. After that the 'door open' light worked completely consistently except at the driver door. With the driver door it would sometimes stay on, sometimes go off, and was definitely related to closing/slamming the driver's door. I sprayed it a bunch more and opened/closed it a bunch of times. After that exercise the 'door open' light now stays on constantly. One odd thing I noticed was that despite the 'door open' light being on constantly, the puddle light would turn on/off as it should when the door opened/closed as well as the door chime working properly when the key is in the ignition and the door is opened.

Now that the 'door open' light stays lit on the instrument cluster, the alarm does not arm when the doors are locked (no horn beep) and the random alarm going off no longer happens, so that's better but I would like to get it all working correctly.

Today I pulled apart the door and pulled the lock actuator. Even with the lock actuator removed, the door open light remains active. All three of the microswitches work correctly and have no effect on the 'door open' light. I pulled trim to get to the comfort control module. I also pulled trim by the hood release in order to get to the wiring connectors for the door. That all looks fine and unplugging them does not change the 'door open' light behavior.

I guess my next step is to plug in vag-com and take a look at what the comfort control module is doing.

Anyone have any other insight or suggestions (other than changing the lock module or micro-switches)?
 

Vince Waldon

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2001 ALH Jetta, 2003 ALH Wagon, 2005 BEW Wagon
That is a weird one.

Have you VCDS-ed it..specifically looking at the microswitch signals...to see what the control module is seeing, signal-wise? Might be a clue there somewhere.
 

libbybapa

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I haven't looked at it in vag-com yet. That was my next step. I'll report back what I find out.
 

jayb79

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Exeter,NH
Wires going thru the door by the hinge? Maybe one of them is broken, my 2001 golf has been giving me the door open signal lots more in the past few months and I think its a broken wire just haven't got around to dealing with it.
 

libbybapa

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I guess my next step is to plug in vag-com and take a look at what the comfort control module is doing.
At this point I wish I had done this before wasting a lot of time and before I had posted this thread, as I could have saved myself a bit of embarrassment! Ah well, once I looked at vag-com and loaded the CCM I checked the connection for the various doors... the right/rear (which was solidly closed) showed as open. :confused: I then took the time to pull the panels and pull the connector to the module. Yup, the door open light went out and the alarm now arms as it should. :p Wow, pulling the rear modules looks like even more of a pita than the fronts! Well, regardless I feel a good sense of accomplishment having zeroed in on the actual issue. :)
 

Vince Waldon

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2001 ALH Jetta, 2003 ALH Wagon, 2005 BEW Wagon
Meh... there's a saying: "life can only be understood backward, but must be lived forwards".

*Very* true working on Volkswagens, much of the time. :)
 

libbybapa

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Well, it was a considerable amount of work but I got the micro-switches swapped on both the driver's side front (it was already apart) and the driver's side rear door lock modules. They work perfectly now. No more 'door open' light, the alarm arms as it should, and the alarm no longer goes off randomly. I'll call that a win even if I took a roundabout route to get there.

The takeaway for me is to plug in vag-com earlier rather than later!
 
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