04 Jetta Headlight buzzer?

Hey all, just bought another TDI. It's an 04 Jetta in great condition. However, one thing I've noticed is a lack of a "your headlights are on" buzzer. These have a buzzer, right? I'm assuming something is not working, but wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy first.

In a possibly related note, if I unlock the doors with the remote and open the drivers door, but don't start the car, the doors relock at their specified time. This is hinting me toward the "$3 door switch" issue...perhaps the car doesn't think the driver's door is open and therefore not sounding the headlight buzzer? Anyway, just searching and gathering info to diagnose.

Almost for certain, door does not know if it's open or closed causing both behaviors. They have a headlight buzzer, some folks turn it off with VCDS. Fix the damn door first before it locks your key in the car.

Or before you leave your headlights on by accident and kill the battery like my wife did yesterday...

This came up because I left my headlights on this morning. Thankfully, I forgot something and noticed it when walking back to the car.

And s***, didn't even think about it locking my keys in the car...

Drewser said:

This came up because I left my headlights on this morning. Thankfully, I forgot something and noticed it when walking back to the car.

And s***, didn't even think about it locking my keys in the car...

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Most likely, if you unlock the car with the remote but don't start it it'll relock - even if you opened the door. That's the easy way to lock you keys in the car!

On my 04, the door switch works when opening from the outside, but not the inside. I've left my headlights on several times, but the parking lights don't draw that much. The giant AGM battery I run has no problem with them being left on for 8 hours.

One of these days I'll replace the door lock module.

I regularly step out of my jobsites to grab a tool or two and head back inside. Of course, my car is always locked; so, i walk out, unlock it to retrieve the tool and usually about the time I am exiting from leaning inside the car ill hear it honk and "lock."
Never been locked out, but its auto locked amillion times during short reach ins.

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***UPDATE***
Ok, the plot thickens. While reading through the $3 door fix thread, I saw someone mention that it seems the switch just gets gummed up. So I sprayed some WD-40 in there and left it over night. In the morning there was no change, so sprayed some more to try and ungum it. No change. Drove to work and worked all day.

When I came out to the car after work I unlocked it with the remote and opened the door. The side marker door light was on! I turned on the headlights and the buzzer sounded. Yay! It was fixed!

I drove home, turned the car off, opened the door and...no buzzer, no door light. Figured it was just working out kinks, so shut door and locked it. Out of curiosity, I unlocked it again and opened the door and the light came on and headlight buzzer works.

So the issue now is that everything works when I unlock with remote and open the door, but still does NOT work after shutting car off (which is when I'm most likely to have headlights on). It's totally consistent too...been watching it for about a week and it's the same every time.

Any ideas what's going on? Are there more than 1 switch?

Well there is one for each door. Likely it's the driver's door. Not unusual, my first a4 worked about half the time for years.

BobnOH said:

Well there is one for each door. Likely it's the driver's door. Not unusual, my first a4 worked about half the time for years.

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True, but the symptoms are all on the same door (driver). It's like it doesn't know the door is open after I shut the car off, but knows it's open before I start the car. If that makes any sense.

Makes perfect sense, it's intermittent or as I used to say demonic possession. If you're thinking there is some sort of related situation causing this, I guess it's possible, but I'm fairly certain there is door disassembly in your future.