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Limited regen, no auto stop, no horn, no brake lights.

1527 Views 6 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  Rick, 
R
Hi everyone. I've posted about this on the yahoo group, but figured I shouljd cross post it here in case it might help someone.

So here's the scenario. For a few months now, and it's been getting worse with time, occasionally my car would go crazy and I would loose initially my ability to get full regen, it would only get what having it gear would do, and no auto stop. Then other times it'd be fine for as much as weeks on end. Then sometimes I'd be stricken with the wierd mode for a few days sometimes. It became difficult to get the battery charge to stay in normal range without having full regen so I had to adapt my driving style to depend more on the engine. Well anyways I finally got the car doing it's thing and took it to the dealership, they said they found a loose connection for the horn but couldn't verify regen and auto stop not funtioning. In fact they tried to tell me I was using the climate control wrong, but I was the one who wrote the climate control FAQ here.

So finally I posted this on the yahoo group and got a possible solution. The brake lights and horn are on the same circuit. So I checked one night when I had the car doing it's thing, sure enough no brake lights either, which would explain why I had almost been rear ended several times. So it made sense now, no brake signal ment no regen and apparently auto stop depends on it as well. I started poking around and found the problem. Fuse #6 under the hood was the culprite. It was barely making any connection with the fuse holder, in fact you could remove it with your bear fingers where you usually need to use the little puller to get it out. The blades of the fuse has some pretty decent arcing as well on them which would point to it slowly getting worse and worse like it did.

Ok so I had found the problem much to my relief, I could finally show the guys at the dealership that I was not crazy, and I had proof. So I made my appointment and secured another vehicle to drive for the time being. So using hand signals I got it over to the dealership, showed them the problem, I got a call the next day saying they had to order the part and it should be in the next day, ok no big deal. That was monday, I called every day asking how it was going and they always told me tomorrow. So today I finally got a call from the service manager and he told me they didn't know what was happening and they had it put on rush delivery or whatever they use.

At this point I get fed up with it and call my friend who's the parts manager and see what the deal is. He called Honda for me (the part is on national back order btw). Well, the part is probably on a boat or will be soon. ETA.... December 8th! Ouch!

I guess in a way it's good that this is an isolated incident, but a month to get a fuse/relay box, geez. So tomorrow I'm going to go get the car and bring it home, put it in the back yard, cover it up and try and just foreget about it (of course I'll go start it once a week).

This is very discouraging, I wish they could fly parts instead of boating them.

So if anyone else ever has this problem, that might be your fix, but from what I understand I'm the only one with one on order. All well, guess thats what I can expect for having a limited out of country production car.

I'm already starting to miss it. My loaner vehicle is a 98 New Beetle, which I'm not too fond of.
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#2 ·
Rick Suiter wrote:

<snip>

Fuse #6 under the hood was the culprite. It was barely making any connection with the fuse holder, in fact you could remove it with your bear fingers where you usually need to use the little puller to get it out. The blades of the fuse has some pretty decent arcing as well on them which would point to it slowly getting worse and worse like it did.

<end snip>


You can safely (since the box is going to be replaced) tweak the fuse blades 10 deg or so to make a better contact or hard wire in (above the fuse box connector) a fuse, bypassing the failed fuse connector. Tweaking fuses loosens the female side spade and will have consequences in the future without replacement.

But since there is a liability issue with brake lights (or the lack thereof) you'll have to insist taking the car at your own (small) risk. IMO better than being in a VW 'til December

AFAIK the parts will be FEDEX'd when available (usually sooner that the target date). Loaner cars are more expensive.
 
R

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Discussion Starter · #3 ·
Yeah but the fuse connectors got pushed down in to the box so they will no longer even hold the fuse or make much contact, otherwise it might work. I realize theres the slight risk of driving it the few miles home, but I'll use hand signals for the time and it gets parked once it's here. I'd rather it sit here behind a gate than over there in an open lot.

I'll see, I might setup a temporary splice fuse to get it working. The VW isn't costing me anything really, it's a loaner from my dad which is nice, but I would rather not be stuck in it for long.

The problem here is the part is comming over on a boat from Japan. It's never an issue if the parts are in California, they can 95% of the time get them overnight if they are already there. Actually I think they said something about having a dedicated truck running back and forth between california and arizona for parts.

Anyone in Japan wanna get me a part and bring it back? LOL.
 
R

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Discussion Starter · #4 ·
Little update. I went to get the car two fridays ago. The shop foreman had just gotten back from vacation so he came out and took a look. I showed him the fuse and how it wasn't making contact. He ran inside and came back with some dental tools and managed to pull the little clips back up out of the box and installed a new fuse and it's been working. They are still going to install the new box, which is here as of friday so they did manage to get it fairly quickly. I have an appointment on tuesday to have it done.
 
R

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Discussion Starter · #5 ·
Well they fixed it today. All in all I can't complain too much. They did get it done fairly quickly and the shop foreman himself did the job. The greatest thing about the whole situation was that the guy at the desk for the description put "car is dying in flight, needs replacment fuse box, part is here." At least they've got a sense of humor.
 
Willie Williford

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#6 ·
Rick;
Did they give you any reasoning for the malfunction? What made the fuse holder "shift" from full contact to a partial contact. (There has to be a reason) Manufacturing defect, heat, etc..............
 
R

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Discussion Starter · #7 ·
There was really no reason given. For some reason the clips that hold the fuse in and make contact to it got pushed down in to the block and over time finally got loose enough to cause a failure. I think this is an isolated incident as it was only that one fuse (the rest held in very tightly) and then theres the fact that they don't stock them in the US, also I found out I was the only one with one on order.
 
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