Vince

Check the speed limiting resistors for the radiator fans. If they go open circuit the fans don't run until they get to full speed. I chased this fault for a couple of years, garages could not work it out, I had to. They look like clay pipes 100mm long with a heat shield and wires going to them, mine were located close to the bottom corner of the radiator on the kerb side. They should read as a short circuit between any of the connections, so disconnect them from the car and test for continuity. Vince.

I thought you might like to know about my afternoon trying to fault find my central locking. The symptoms were like many that are reported for central locking, doors not necessarily locking when the key is operated. It turned out to be a seized motor in one door that was stalled and drawing so much current that the other doors didn't get a look in. I suggest if you are looking at a central locking system, that you first go round one door in turn and unplug the door from the chassis, by turning the cover of the connector where it joins the chassis, see the central locking articles where they talk about checking the wires and you will see what I mean. If you find that the rest of the system works correctly with one door disconnected, then you know which door is causing the problem. I took the 'motor' off the latch mechanism and opened it up, found that the larger motor inside was completely seized until I turned the shaft. I spun it up off a 12v supply and it was fine after this, put it back into the central locking 'motor' module and it's all working again. You can lever the electric motors out of the assembly as they are fitted with connectors that slide into place, quite a cute system actually. So there you have it, one seized motor inside the central locking 'motor' assembly took out the whole system. Disconnecting one door at a time will allow you to work out which door it is and save you taking apart the wrong door, like I did. Vince.

If your not sure if they cleared the code, did they change the pump? Do you know what code it was? If not, they may have got it wrong and changed the wrong part! Vince.

Have you tried clearing the fault code? If so, is the code the same? Has the replacement pump got the same problem? Vince.

Exactly like I said, any route via a circuit to ground can look like it's just a ground connection. You don't learn anything by doing this test. Vince.

By a 'negative feed' do you mean it's a route to ground? If so, then that's normal for any connection that goes to a device. Take the following example... Think about the headlights. The bulb is connected to ground on one side. On the other the wiring goes to the headlight switch. The other side of the headlight switch would go to a live feed. Now I have ignored the dipped beam switch but for what I need to explain, this will do! So When the switch is closed, the non-ground bulb wire has 12v (or so) on it, but open the switch and what do you get??? No connection to the positive supply, but a cold bulb filament between the wire and ground. And when the bulb is off, the cold filament is as good as just another piece of wire, so it will look like a route to ground. It's when you put 12v on it and the bulb heats up that the connection that seemed to be a ground will hold at 12v. It's not only bulbs, almost any electronics will 'appear' to be a route to ground when the power feed is off. In general this will work many more times than not. So if this is what you are seeing, then it's likely that there is an issue with the supply, i.e. the 12v rail. Vince.

Thanks, I ordered one! Vince.

I had a problem with slow wipers, did all the work on the spindles only to find I had a lazy motor, so ended up with a new motor, but try servcing the spindles first. Vince.

Would you happen to have an item number, so we can buy them knowing they fit correctly. Vince.

Neil, I am in Reading if you want to pop over and have your error codes cleared. Drop me a PM if you are interested. Vince.

I just found '98vw 12b 565 ea' in the wiring diagram, it's the gearbox controller, but the ABS location is described the same, so does anyone have any tips? Vince.

I still have the random ABS firing problem on our 1999 2.8 galaxy. I checked the ring around the hub and it's fine. The sensor has been changed on the wheel that's reporting intermittant problems. So I found on TIS that the ABS module is on the kerb side in the engine compartment to the rear, and found a box next to the battery with the part number 98vw 12b 565 ea. All I did yesterday was dislodge the module and put it back, and when we set off to test the cruise control (mended that yeasterday too) the ABS light cancelled on it's own. Maybe I moved a bad connection. I have since taken the connector off and given it some contact cleaner. So my questions are... 1) Can anyone tell me if 98vw 12b 565 ea actually is the ABS module. 2) And if so, why hasn't our 1997 2.3 car got one in the same place? 3) Lastly, catch all, so where are the ABS modules on these two cars? Thanks, Vince.

That was my main reasoning too! If I ain't watching, it's not happening. Vince.

Port ok, interface not found means... It found the port, but the vag interface was not on the end (or it did not reply). The scenario where changing the port made it work, quite possibly com1 already existed and the vagcom interface was actually on com2, so com1 was found but no interface existed, com2 was also found and the interface was on there too. Another possibility was that the interface came up as com1 and clashed with some existing hardware, then trying to use it would give unpredictable results. Vince.

I think dual air con is where you have a rear system as well as the front. Our 4x4 has dual controls in the front so you can control the rear heater independantly, but dual A/C gives you controls in the back and it can cool as well as heat. That's what I think. Vince.