Brake+ABS light & 3 Beeps

slyk

Veteran Member
Joined
May 4, 2007
Location
San Antonio, TX
TDI
'03 Jetta Wagon, 6spd
I took a video this morning. What a weird and annoying problem.

The dash/radio backlighting did not flicker during this video, but last night it did. The lights/beeping only happened one more time after I stopped the video. This was taken as I was starting out of the driveway in the morning, about 30 degrees out.

Youtube video
 
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Tight5tdi

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 4, 2005
Location
MN
TDI
Jetta, 2003, Silver
I am not able to view the video, I get a 404 error when I click the link
 

Tight5tdi

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 4, 2005
Location
MN
TDI
Jetta, 2003, Silver
I was able to get the video to play. This is exactly what mine was doing until I cleaned the ground studs under the battery.
 

BigHarv

New member
Joined
Jul 31, 2012
Location
SE Ohio
TDI
2003 Jetta
2003 Jetta Electrical Gremlin Redux

All,

2003 Jetta ALH 190K. Pretty much same symptoms as described in this post. Bone stock vehicle. Symptoms start out as ABS light, beeping, radio light flickering, then progress to complete dash light, blower, radio, headlight cutout. Key on / off will potentially reset. Symptoms have never been present with key on, engine off. Correct battery, charging fine, new key switch, several new relays, batt grounds under box cleaned, no VAGCOM codes ever. Several posts have mentioned engine rpm. If I push the clutch in on the highway and let the revs drop to idle, symptoms occur, then back to normal. Can produce same result in driveway by revving to 2k and letting it fall back to idle. Cold / wet / rain has no bearing on this bug for me.

For the most part, this bug either occurs or doesn't: If the radio light is solid, non-flickering at startup, bug will *usually* not occur. Once a couple engine start / stop sequences happen, usually it's then fine.

So here's the slightly weird part: Pulling the battery hot cable off will chase this bug away for anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months. Consistently. I believe most of the "this is now fixed" conclusions due to cleaning a ground, etc., are really just some sort of temporary "reset" due to having had the battery disconnected.

To summarize: This feels like either a voltage regulation issue (alternator) or a relay that is not always latching correctly. I would really like to know more about how this vehicle regulates and switches from alternator output to battery, but I'm not sure even a real schematic will help here.

My Valero 120A alt. has 70k on it, so that's up next, but others appear to have tried a new alt. with no success.

Thanks in advance for any new insights.

Aaron
 

Jenjen

New member
Joined
Aug 14, 2012
Location
Denver
TDI
2002 VW Golf
Hi everyone, first off, I have to say that this has been a very helpful thread, in that I now have a list of things to check before spending too much money. I am learning how to work on my own 2002 VW Golf TDI (about to roll over to 200,000 miles), in hopes that I can save some cash. My fingers are crossed that this fix is a relatively inexpensive one, as I am having the exact same problem, and it looks like it could either be a small problem or a big one...I can't tell for sure based on what I've read up to now.

It started last week, right after leaving my house. Three beeps, and ABS light flickering briefly. The back lights flicker a bit and it feels like the car is shuddering, as if it wants to just die on me. This is what really concerns me...being stranded somewhere.

I will check out my battery and the brake fluid (the free fixes) first and see how that goes. I was wondering if there has been any new information about this problem since the last post?

Thanks!
Jenny
 

JohnSmith

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 28, 2014
Location
ca
TDI
alh
Anyone find out the cause to this problem? I have all the same symptoms as posted but my cars dies after abs/brake lights and beeps. The car would instantly dies after the lights/beeps. One time I was driving and the car would violently jerk and wants to die after light/beep(didnt seem like a misfire). I cleaned the 3 grounds under the battery and checked all fuses. Alternator and battery are both good.
 
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jess1860

Active member
Joined
Jul 14, 2014
Location
ontario
TDI
2002 jetta
Has anyone found the fix for this? I'm having the same problem, sometimes it happens sometimes it doesn't, started when the weather started getting cold, it's getting worse now, my car will actually shut off in the middle of driving. I jus got a new alternator thinking that would fix it but it's not happening
 

slyk

Veteran Member
Joined
May 4, 2007
Location
San Antonio, TX
TDI
'03 Jetta Wagon, 6spd
Mine went away after I removed, cleaned, and sanded down the 3 grounds underneath the battery. I sanded both the wire ends and also the grounding point. Then I used dielectric grease after putting everything back together. Although I sold the car about 6 months later, I never had the problem again.
 

jess1860

Active member
Joined
Jul 14, 2014
Location
ontario
TDI
2002 jetta
ok mine is getting worse now. again still only happens when the car is cold or not heated up. the break light and abs light flash and now my car shuts off while im driving, after the car shuts off it resets my trip meter and the dash clock, but the radio on my stereo does not reset. ill try the battery cables tomorrow but im worried about getting on the 400 and the car stalling on me. ive had someone tell me it might be the ignition relay. if someone knows the specific fix for this please let me know. ive taken the car to 2 shops and it doesn't happen when its there and it doesn't bring up any codes so they cant figure out what it wrong.
 

slyk

Veteran Member
Joined
May 4, 2007
Location
San Antonio, TX
TDI
'03 Jetta Wagon, 6spd
Have you tried removing, cleaning, sanding, and reattaching the ground wires under the battery box??
 

JohnSmith

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 28, 2014
Location
ca
TDI
alh
So far I tried cleaning the battery terminals/grounds and new 109 relay. Still getting intermittent problems. I thinking all my problems points to bad cluster? There's been couple times the car would not start at all when I turn the key all the way to crank the engine over. I would just get no cluster lights and the trip/clock with just blink. Usually the all the lights would light up and warning sound goes off as you turn the key to crank engine over. None of cluster lights turns on or warning sound beeps. Couple tries the cluster lights would all light up and stay on as turn the key all the way to crank engine(No warning sound beep though as key is in). After many attempts to crank the engine over I just reset the battery and the car would start back up normally. Also I would get warning lights beeps and abs/battery light blinks, car would misfire/stall while idling. Trying to see if car would respond by giving the engine some gas would smooth it out from the misfire/stall. Nothings happen car still does thing which I cut engine off and restarts normally. Usually when I get the warning lights sound and abs/battery light it would shut engine off(sometime it doesnt shut engine off just abs/battery light and beeps). Another thing I notice is when the trip od and clock reset I hear a electronically zip kinda sound from cluster before it would reset. Sorry for the long detailed paragraph but I would like to solve this problem. Kinda frustrating cause I just bought this car a couple months ago. I thinking about purchasing or looking for someone local with VCDS cable to go more in depth with it see I can really narrow the problem down. Anyone input would be greatly appreciated and sorry for the long paragraph.
 

jess1860

Active member
Joined
Jul 14, 2014
Location
ontario
TDI
2002 jetta
ok I disconnected the battery and cleaned up the terminals a bit. not really much to clean. I put it back and tried it again today. still getting it. seems worse now too. I took a video of it its really wonky now. and the car shuts off on me too here is the video http://youtu.be/BRXCr0i8-Xg

again once the engine is warm, the issue goes away.
 

CopaMundial

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2011
Location
Southeastern PA
TDI
03 Jetta Wagon 5sp (New to me Oct 2014) 03 Jetta 5sp (RIP Aug 2014)
Has anyone found the fix for this?
Mine went away after I removed, cleaned, and sanded down the 3 grounds underneath the battery.
ok mine is getting worse now.
Have you tried removing, cleaning, sanding, and reattaching the ground wires under the battery box??
ok I disconnected the battery and cleaned up the terminals a bit.
And when you had the battery disconnected did you... you know... clean the ground connections that are located under the battery box?
 

whitedog

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2004
Location
Bend, Oregon
TDI
2004 Jetta that I fill by myself
What do you mean by crappy shape? A picture would help to see if it can be cleaned up or if something needs replaced.

Note that anything at the dealer will be expensive and there is probably a much cheaper option.
 
Joined
Nov 13, 2001
Location
Kalkaska Mi.
TDI
Jetta, 2006, Campanella White, Anthracite Int. DSG, Pkg. 1; New Beetle, 1998, Yellow, black leather Int., 2013 Passat TDI SEL Night blue, grey Int. given back to VW (well, not given... ;) ) 2018 Tiguan; first gasser in years
By ground connections do you mean these.
http://imgur.com/JVkueZg
I noticed the one is in kind of crappy shape, gonna go to vw see if I can get a new one maybe that could fix it?
The wires in that pic are not the ground connections. The ground connections are under the tray the battery sits on. Pull the battery and the tray and you'll see the wires (brown I believe) mounted to a threaded stud under a nut.
 

whitedog

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2004
Location
Bend, Oregon
TDI
2004 Jetta that I fill by myself
The wires in that pic are not the ground connections. The ground connections are under the tray the battery sits on. Pull the battery and the tray and you'll see the wires (brown I believe) mounted to a threaded stud under a nut.
Guess i should have looked at the picture.

But still try to stay away from the dealer.
 

CopaMundial

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2011
Location
Southeastern PA
TDI
03 Jetta Wagon 5sp (New to me Oct 2014) 03 Jetta 5sp (RIP Aug 2014)
Those are fuses. And they are on top of the battery.
I see one of yours is disconnected (not sure if you were cleaning it or found it that way).

Having said that, those metal strip fuses are not likely to be the source of your problem if it just started happening out of the blue.

But if you remove each of the two green fuses on the right side as viewed (left, drivers side of car)... S178 and S179 in diagram... you can check that those are not blown. Those are for ABS system.



(note, in this image S162 is for coolant glow plug system and is only present on manual transmission cars so don't be alarmed if you don't have that)

But getting back to the original question, when the folks above were referring to ground connections under the battery they mean that they are under the battery. If you remove the battery, and look under it, then you will see under the battery are some ground connections that are under the battery. They will be wires bolted directly to the metal body of the car.
 
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whitedog

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2004
Location
Bend, Oregon
TDI
2004 Jetta that I fill by myself
It sounds to me like a bad connection someplace. Check over that power bar really well going as far as disconnecting everything one at a time and being sure it's a good, clean connection. Then check that the connector inside the block grips the fuse tight.
 

need4speed

Veteran Member
Joined
May 4, 2004
It just struck me, reading this thread, that some people are having engine shut-off when this alert happens. My bet is that current is being interrupted to the solenoid for the ASV. For cars where the ASV is deleted (or otherwise non-functional; those actuator arms are fragile - and expensive to replace) - loss of current to the ASV solenoid may interrupt vacuum to the ASV actuator, but the butterfly valve isn't going to close.

So if you have a flaky ground, and it's enough to interrupt current to the ASV solenoid, then your engine might shut off in that case. If your ASV is deleted or non-functional, the motor might keep running. But you'll still get codes and beeps and things like that.

The root-cause of this would still be the flaky ground (or poor battery-terminal connection).
 
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brian_e

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2004
Location
Farmington NH
TDI
2001 Silver Jetta
Jess--- use VCDS and scan the code. It will tell all. I had this problem and the beeps only occur when the ABS light reamins on after several restarts. Fix the issue no more beeps. My problem was a harness break, then a couple of bad wheel sensors since they were quite old...
 

jess1860

Active member
Joined
Jul 14, 2014
Location
ontario
TDI
2002 jetta
There is no code, the abs light and brake
Light flashes on and then disappears after the car shuts down. I cleaned the little brown grounds I'm hoping that will fix it. I guess I'll find out tomorrow when I start the car in the mornin
 

jess1860

Active member
Joined
Jul 14, 2014
Location
ontario
TDI
2002 jetta
Well that didn't work, man this is driving me crazy, when My ble dash lights are flickering like they want to die, when I'm sitting at an intersection they almost do die, and now I just had my window down and pushed down window the abs light came back on, when the windows are down and you push down window my headlights dim now too,
And there is no code so a mechanic can tell if there is something wrong with the car or not
 

whitedog

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2004
Location
Bend, Oregon
TDI
2004 Jetta that I fill by myself
Did you clean all three ground points? The big cable looks a bit green and don't forget the one to the right in that picture.
 

JoeK_TDI

Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2010
Location
Coquitlam, Canada
TDI
2002
JohnSmith - I have the same problem. I'm trying to figure it out right now.

When I try to start - If the horn responding to the remote to unlock the car is weak or doesn't respond - I know I will have a problem starting. The dash indicator lights will flicker on/off - but the starter will not engage. If I play with the ignition switch - the electrical contact will eventually be made and the engine will catch & run If the engine is cold, the ABS warning will go off until the engine has a chance to warm up a bit - maybe 1 to 2 minutes. No warning codes are thrown. Once the engine catches - the dash lights flicker for a few minutes - then the problem clears itself up.

If the car responds to the remote with a strong BEEP, I will not have any starting issues. Once the car is running - no problems.

I initially thought that the problem was the ignition switch (as that was the common consensus), so I had that replaced. Didn't fix the issue.

Today, the car was making 'clicking' noises as if not enough power was reaching the starter - a relay maybe? Battery is good - about 1 yr old.

Did you find a solution to your problem? Thanks.
JoeK
 
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hollowhead

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2015
Location
cope,sc
TDI
2003 Jetta wagon 5 speed(2)2000 vw beetle tdi automatic
check all connections on the fuse box on top of battery. also check the three wire plug on that fb for good clean electrical contact.
 
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