Electrical probs in my golf

[PranK]

Hi Guys,

I have a 2000 Golf 2.0L auto and a few weeks after I bought it (Julyish) it started displaying the ABS light on the dash. Not from starting the car, but maybe a minute or two later (and occasionallly not at all.) When I checked the codes it was along the lines of 'supplied power outside range' - will confirm this when I find where I wrote it down.

BUT the other thing that (very intermittently) happens (which is almost definitely related) is that when I am using lots of power (headlights, wipers, stereo) and add something else (such as indicators) i'll lose the stereo's power and sometimes i'll get the 'warning' sound from the dash (like when you're fuel light comes on.) It seems that momentarily, there is not enough power to run everything.

The alternator is fine, a sparky checked that, I keep a fairly constant 13.7v when the car is running. BUT what I've noticed is that it seems to deteriorate the longer I drive the car, so the stereo turning off wont happen for the first 10mins, but will start happening after a while and then get to the point where everytime i indicate, i lose power. Also, the headlights dim with each indicator 'flash' (only after a while.)

The guy that owned the car before me had 2 headunits in it, one was the original, broken, hu and the other was a sony MD player (MD baby, retro!) These have been replaced with a (single) Alpine hu but I'm wondering if there could maybe be some excess power used behind there somewhere... ? Doubt its possible though.

I dont mean to doubt my sparky (first time I've been to him) but with my very limited auto electrical experience, its hard to look beyond the alternator. But if the multimeter reads 13.7-13.8v, what can I do?

I'd love some opinions if you have any. I'll be selling the car soon and I want to fix this before I do.

(Also, a quick q - the car shifting into 4th can sometimes be *very* jumpy - is this normal of the mk4 autos? Its only got 98k on it)

Thanks in advance guys.

Christian

[Jmac]

Change your ABS fuse mate, even if yours is ok, trust me, wont tell you why thats classified, but take it from me change the fuse mate and the light will be gone
Cheers
Jmac

[McDub]

and if your wipers start coming on randomly, it's because someone did not tighten the accessories earthing point under the dash properly when installing something there, won't tell you how i know that, it's classified too

[PranK]

Wow,lots of classified info. Thanks guys, will change the fuse, fingers crossed.