Similar problem plus more!!!
Hi! I'm posting here instead of starting a new thread because I'm having a similar problem...and I did something to make it worse.
Our 98 Jetta TDI started behaving as if possessed...first the alarm stopped setting when I locked the doors. No biggie. This went on for a couple of months. The the car started saying that the trunk was open when it wasn't, and you could continually hear some mechanism trying to engage. About that time, the hazards would go on randomly. Then, theeriest one....the door locks would go up and down, up and down, all by themselves. Then suddenly the car seemed to have fixed itself, so I delayed getting it in to the garage for weeks, and then suddenly one day the alarm went off when I was at a shopping center and would not reset, so I could not start the car. (Even with coaching from the local dealer -- very nice people -- over the phone.) So I had it towed 70 miles (Thank you, AAA Plus).
They mechanic at the dealer's thought it was that the fuse box was loose. So it was tightened. And when the minute I pulled in after returning from the dealership, it all started up again. I thought I'd drive awhile to get more data, and I got a lot. The highlight was on Christmas with the car in the garage, locks going up and down and the horn honking intermittently. This killed the battery. We got it back into the garage, and word up, it was the vacuum pump. So we had that replaced.
Everything was okay for three weeks, then last Thursday, the alarm stopped setting, and Friday afternoon the locks started going up and down again. But I had to drive out of town on a business trip that evening, and since it had taken a little time for the car to go completely nuts the previous two times, I went ahead and drove out of town Friday afternoon.
So..I'm staying at my co-workers' house 130 miles from home, we have to both get up early to drive 200 miles the next morning, and at 2:30 a.m., in the middle of a storm, the intermittent horn honking (as distinct from the alarm going off) starts up again. I'm a guest in these people's home, they live in a quiet neighborhood. I was mortified, as well as awake and not thinking clearly. So I got dressed, went out, pulled out the handbook, and took out the fuse for the horn. It seemed to have stopped, so I went back to bed, almost fell asleep, and it started up again. So I took out ALL the fuses. Went back in. Almost fell asleep. Horn went off. So...I thought disconnecting the battery would be a good idea but I didn't have a wrench and I didn't want to get my coworker up to ask him for one, so I just took out the bottom two rows of relays, as the horn kept honking merrily along. Finally, when I got the whole second row out, the horn stopped. Went in. Went to bed. Horn went off again. Got co-worker up. Got wrench. Disconnected battery. It all stopped.
The next morning there was the problem of putting the relays back in. The fuses -- no problem -- the manual has a schematic. But the relays...went to a local dealer, they had no info for me. When to an auto parts store, looked at a book appliable to a variety of different types of Jetta's, they did have a picture of a fuse box w/ the relays, but it looked NOTHING like mine.
So...I called the dealer that had helped me out on the phone before (also where we take the car to be fixed) and this very nice guy did some research and over the phone talked me into getting the relays back in right.
But...they weren't completely right. The turn signals and hazards didn't work. The windshield wipers worked if you pushed the lever up, but not if you pushed it down. And there was a funny noise in the dash. So I got another tow home. Thanks, AAA Plus, but this time I had to pay and extra $95 dollars because I was farther away.
Well...the mechanic concluded that the in addition to the vacuum pump replaced before, the alarm control module needed to be replaced. So, while they are waiting for a new one, we are driving with their test alarm control module in the car. (Very kind.) And it is true, the locks and all seem to be okay for now.
However...although they said they checked the blikers and windsheild wiper and they were fine, and congratulated me on getting the relays in properly....alas, it was not true. I must not have gotten them in right. They still aren't working, as I discovered on my way home from the garage.
So....since I really don't want to spend more money on this now and am also not having so much confidence in the garage's detail orientedness, I went on a website that had VW parts, found out which relay controlled the blinkers and hazards, reinstalled it, and they're fine. BUT I can't figure out what's up with the wipers. The fuse is fine. The relay (which I also looked up on the website) does seem to be in the right place...at least, the wipers won't work at all if it's anywhere else. But the still don't work when the lever is down, which is where my preferred wiper settings are.
SO my question is, for anyone who has read all the way through this, does anyone have some advice? (Besides telling the mechanic, which of course, I will)
Or...is anyone who has a 1998 Jetta TDI willing to photograph their fuses and relays and post it here so I can take a look at it? (Anyone who performs this kindness will earn extra good karma points, I am sure.)
Thanks for listening,
the3ms