Voltage surges

[Gillzy]

Hiya all,

So a few nights ago I noticed what I believed to be frequent voltage surges when driving with the lights on. At idle you will see the lights flickering and around the OBD screen and ODO you will see the cluster lighting flicker ever so slightly. There has been on the odd chance on a unusually bigger flicker the RDC200 will stop what ever its doing for a second (but stay on) and then continue as normal, though it doesn't turn off nor does the HU or cabin illumination lighting flicker. Has me stumped.

Could this be the voltage regulator? Are they attached to the alternater like a Scirocco?

Its really bugging me! Car is idling fine, battery terminals are secure.




Aiden

[Gillzy]

This morning on the way to Uni, the radio cut right out and restarted in 'learning mode'. Any ideas?

[SuperChimps]

I'm not going to be a lot of help here.. But I've seen as few threads around re the earth wires from the battery or something along those lines. These corroding and causing similar sounding problems.
A bit of searching should turn something up

[ZantetsukenJ]

Definitely bad earth's, trace them from the battery and clean the surfaces which they are attached to

[Paazuzu]

+1 to it being an earth problem.

Clean all the earth points with a wire brush and put some electrical grease on them before tightening them up. Fixed the issue on my car.

[Gillzy]

+1 to it being an earth problem.

Clean all the earth points with a wire brush and put some electrical grease on them before tightening them up. Fixed the issue on my car.

Not to be spoon fed, but as dumb as I sound the only earth I can find is the one from the negitive terminal from the battery. Used to working on Mitsubishi's and BMWs rather than VWs (especially a newish one haha).

Today instead if the ESC and ABS playing up for a second, it was the power steering conked out until once for a second, the other time until I restarted the car. My VW mechanic is booked til the 20th and the dealer I bought it from is 2 hrs away fml, so willing if within arms reach to try sort these earths out myself

[h100vw]

Not to be spoon fed, but as dumb as I sound the only earth I can find is the one from the negitive terminal from the battery. Used to working on Mitsubishi's and BMWs rather than VWs (especially a newish one haha).

Today instead if the ESC and ABS playing up for a second, it was the power steering conked out until once for a second, the other time until I restarted the car. My VW mechanic is booked til the 20th and the dealer I bought it from is 2 hrs away fml, so willing if within arms reach to try sort these earths out myself

When I bought my Polo the PS was dead. The fuse is one of the big ones under the plastic covers on top of the battery. These fuses have known to fracture in the past and be intermittent.

Too hard basket to check the wiring diagram now but could be the same fuse is involved?

Gavin

[Blue9N3]

Check resistance across the fuses, my ABS one was just partly broken and caused all kinds of issues.


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[Gillzy]

When I bought my Polo the PS was dead. The fuse is one of the big ones under the plastic covers on top of the battery. These fuses have known to fracture in the past and be intermittent.

Too hard basket to check the wiring diagram now but could be the same fuse is involved?

Gavin

Not too hard, like I said I had already checked the fuses while cross referencing with the wiring diagram and didn't find anything out of the norm.

Ill give it another crack after work today in a decent light this time incase Ive missed anything. Just wanted to ask where the earths are in the bay apart from the battery chassis earth as its a tight bay and can't see much.

[blis]

I had a similar problem on my Mk2, there was a HEX bolt on the steering column that came loose and it was part of the ground for the dash. So this very much seems to be a grounding issue. You might be able to isolate it by using a continuity test from chassis and testing the column, and chassis areas that are affected.

Good luck.