quick glow plug circuit question 01 beetle

so today I rewired a hack job of a glow plug circuit but I keep getting the same code pop up. open or short to ground. NOW there is one thing I DO NOT have. a glow plug light in the cluster. it seems that it was replaced with a gas model and neither I nor the owner of said vehicle noticed it. would having a non diesel cluster cause a code like that? if so does anyone have an 01 diesel beetle cluster that they are not using????

There has to be at least a few pick-n-pulls near you.
By hack job do you mean you made your own GP harness?
Did you solder? because the preferred method is those butt connectors with the waterproof glue in them. Clamp them then heat em up.

No someone added a switch and starter type relay to it which bypassed the glow plug circuit entirely. Thats what I fixed. Didn't have solder, cant solder if my life depended on it anyway, but butts and tape to keep it dry.

Also there is ONE diesel beetle, an 03 , in a PAP near me. Hopefully the cluster is still there but we shall see.

I found a diesel cluster for my daughters beetle on eBay. Yes that’s why you’re getting a code assuming everything else is back to oem and done right.

I found one on eBay as well just the owner doesn't want to spend that much on a car hes trying to sell. But he will if he has to ya know.

I think the one I found was less than $100. Also an 02 and newer cluster will not work. VW went from a 2 wire glow plug system in 99.5-01 to a 4 wire system in 02 and newer.

Can't imagine why the cluster would care if there are 2 or 4 wires coming out of the relay. Is there something other than the squiggly connected to the cluster from the GP circuit? Can that even cause a code? What code?

BobnOH said:

Can't imagine why the cluster would care if there are 2 or 4 wires coming out of the relay. Is there something other than the squiggly connected to the cluster from the GP circuit? Can that even cause a code? What code?

Click to expand...

I'm sorry you're right I was thinking ECU. The ECU does care, the cluster, not so much.

cluster shouldn't matter BUT the code is "glow plug relay J58- open or short to ground" i did replace the 180 relay with the one out of my 99.5 Jetta, same part #, and it went away for about 2 min then came back. same code. mine wasn't throwing a code at all when i did this. so i know the relay was good.