Electrical problem please help

[oddfatherskidz]

I've got a 1998 VW Jetta TDI 5 speed it's a mk3 idk if it was a split year or something buts it's a mk3, I went to start the car yesterday and it cranked for a split second then I lost everything, I've gone through my grounds they seem to be good cleaned up and tightened, my battery is good, relay 109 was replaced and all the fuses seem to be good, I've got voltage going to the fuse panel but I've got no electrical power at my instrument cluster doesn't show mileage or the clock no door ring no done light not radio not anything any ideas? My next replacement is the ignition switch kind of a shot in the dark but I work tonight and ran out of time so I'm borrowing a friend's car I've got it down to the bearing thing behind the steering wheel once I can figure out how to get that off I'll replace the ignition switch as well. Any input will be very much appreciated.

 

[garciapiano]

Make sure you actually have ground at the battery and all the contacts are tight. Underneath the battery tray is the main ground for the battery. Clean that ground point with a wire brush and make sure the ground nut is on tightly.

 

[oddfatherskidz]

I already took off every ground even under the battery tray and cleaned from under them brushed them with a wire brush and retightened them down and I do have ground at my battery

 

[Vince Waldon]

It suddenly stopped cranking, or it cranks but won't start?

Tell us more about how you know your battery is OK.

Tell us more about how you tested your fuses.

Tell us more about what "lost everything" means.

Not asking the above to be a nit-picker, moreso the devil is in the details, particularly when it comes to strange electrical problems that crop up suddenly.

 

[oddfatherskidz]

It cranked for a split second then stopped and when it stopped cranking I lost everything electrical, I took my battery to advanced auto yo be tested and it came good it's only 5 months old, and I used a voltmeter to check every single fuse

 

[Vince Waldon]

Perfect.

Luckily the starter solenoid circuit is pretty simple: Battery -> start contacts on ignition switch -> starter solenoid

So, you can use your multimeter to see if you've voltage at the starter solenoid (smaller connection, not the big lead from the battery) when someone else turns the key to "Start" (car in neutral, brakes on etc etc).

No voltage at the solenoid would point a pretty big finger at the electrical side of the ignition switch, and as you've lost other electrical systems that run thru the ignition switch there's a good chance that this is the case anyways... not an uncommon fail item on older cars, and MK3s in particular.

The good news is that it's cheap (20-30 bucks max) and pretty easy to replace... you should have no problem finding some Youtube videos.

There's still a chance it's a wiring issue, of course, but mechanical parts of a system tend to fail first, and if you focus on the ignition switch your're naturally going to inspect the wiring around the switch itself, check for power at the switch, etc. No power at the ignition switch itself will have you looking upstream.

 

[oddfatherskidz]

I appreciate the input, I'm working 16's the today through Friday so I won't be doing anything to it for the next few days I've already got an ignition switch and got everything pulled apart but the splined bearing thing behind the steering wheel Ive got to figure out how to pull that thing off, the 2 and 3 arm pullers I have can't grab into the lip of the bearing I tried using a pipe wrench to hold onto it and get caught on the lip but I don't have enough hands to do that myself it seems I fought with it for an hour then had to go to work but once I get that figured out I'll check for voltage at the switch and I'll replace the switch since I'm already in there then check for voltage at the starter, if I get any updates I'll post it here I really appreciate you man

 

[garciapiano]

I've had the same thing happen and it was my ground terminal on the battery just being loose. Re-tightening it fixed the problem. But the entire car was dead - no power - even though the terminal was physically on the battery post - just loose.

I've had the entire car die when it lost connection at the battery terminal when the ground cable pulled out of the terminal while driving. That was scary.

Before you go and tear into the ignition switch, it's probably best to test continuity from the negative post of the battery to the body. A $15 multimeter can answer the question. The ignition switch typically does not completely die out of nowhere. It usually goes intermittent first.

 

[oddfatherskidz]

I've had the same thing happen and it was my ground terminal on the battery just being loose. Re-tightening it fixed the problem. But the entire car was dead - no power - even though the terminal was physically on the battery post - just loose.

I've had the entire car die when it lost connection at the battery terminal when the ground cable pulled out of the terminal while driving. That was scary.

Before you go and tear into the ignition switch, it's probably best to test continuity from the negative post of the battery to the body. A $15 multimeter can answer the question. The ignition switch typically does not completely die out of nowhere. It usually goes intermittent first.

I did check continuity between the post and the body and from the terminal to the body checked out good, I've already got everything stripped from my steering column only thing left is that bearing and I'm at the switch so might as well continue to finish that

 

[oddfatherskidz]

So I replaced the switch and that didn't fix it I found out I don't have continuity between the red wire with a black stripe on the back side of the fuse box to the one connected to my starter

 

[turbodieseldyke]

Red with black stripe -- is that a fat wire? The starter wire is skinny, and should not be connected to a fat wire anywhere.

 

[oddfatherskidz]

Yeah then as of right now I'm stumped, my car will roll over touching the starter, I guess I'm going to take my dash out today to see if any wires back there look like ass

 

[oddfatherskidz]

I was up for over 24 hours working on it yesterday after working night shift and being up part of the day before so my mind was not at 100% on that one, I'm going to rolling the dash out today to check for bad connections