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.

Hi, Micro Cat is the PC based car parts system used by the trade to locate part numbers and order parts for cars. It shows you blown up diagrams of all the parts of the car, what the bits cost etc. It's what you see on the screen when you go to buy parts, and think 'that looks useful!' wonder if I can get that for home. If it knew my VIN it should be able to filter out anything that's not on the car! Vince.

I tried to book one of our cars into Quick Thick for an Air Con charge once. They wanted us to leave the car there for half a day, that didn't really help when we were visiting friends and more than just a little walk to their location. Vince.

From the wiring diagram it suggests that fan2 should come on then the second temperature range of the sensor is reached. The air con can turn on fan1, and if I turn on the A/C fan1 runs with the engine cold. I have changed the right hand (brown) sensor on the thermostat housing. But what worries me is that I unplugged the brown sensor when fan1 was running (A/C off) and it kept running, so my vehicle may have the sensor on the radiator too! I tried my VIN in micro cat, and it didn't know it! Vince.

Any ideas people? I am starting to wonder if the switch actually is there on the radiator, or if it's on the thermostat housing. Microcat shows three sensors on the stat housing, no1 is for the A/C to know the water temp, no2 is for the dashboard gauge, no3 seems to be the fan switch. Would this make sence? Vince.

Hi All, I am asking if anyone has steps for changing the temp switch identified in TIS as N291, it's the two stage temp sensor for the two electric fans on our V6 giha 4x4 1999. What I have done so far is establish the follwing (mainly by stumbling around in TIS). 1) The sensor is on the radiator surround. 2) The 'control module' is the odd box up by the battery and right at the front of the bonnet. This seems to me to actually contain a dual relay module. I turned off the A/C to stop that from causing the demand for the fans to run. And note that fan 2 does not run when the engine is hot. I applied power directly to the fans, and they both run fine, so there is a problem supplying power to fan 2. I unplugged connector C320, the connector on the control module with the 4 low current wires, and found that one of the 'demand cooling' connections was a good 13.6 volt, the other only about 11v. I worked out which wire (pin 2 red/black) would call for fan2 to run (this is the feed from the temp sensor) and pushed the meter probe into the insulation. Put the other end of the test lead to the battery and the control module clicked and fan 2 started running, so that's why I want to change the sensor. I am convinced that the sensor is not supplying a good enough output to fire the relay in the control module. I am new to TIS and they obviously stick to the official methods, but does anyone know if I released the resistor pack bracket, will I be able to change the sensor from below? Regards Vince.

Well that has sorted it! Now I want to know how and why! Is it the fact that no fault code is reported that points to a problem after the coilpack? Is this a known issue that the leads break down and give these symptoms? I can understand that the load on the lead and plug is less at tickover because it's not being fired as often. The plugs the motor factors supplied have four spark gaps, the ones on the car had two, does this make much difference? I ask these questions because I work in IT support where you learn that you cannot just say X fixes Y unless you know that X is the ONLY cause of Y. There can be many causes of the same symptoms! Thanks again to those that have offered advice, I am so pleased the car is working correctly again. Vince.

I am going to spend

Any ideas? I am thinking about changing the plugs and leads out of desperation! Vince.

Some progress! Thanks to mk2vr6 the fault code seems to have gone. Initially the 533 code was coming back, the 5 minutes on ignition didn't make any obvious noises and the code was coming back, then the fault stopped comming back. Unfortunately it's still running like a little tank. Ok for the first few minutes, then jumping around like there are bunnies in the cylinders. But no faults. I have tried pulling off the plug leads (taking precautions) and all the leads are sparking ok. The leads and plugs have only been on there for a year or so. The coil pack is only about 6 months old. Any ideas people? Thanks Vince. P.S. (El Dingo, could be a pint in it for you if you want to pop round the corner and take a look!)

Thanks very much mk2vr6, I will get some cleaner lunchtime and have a go at this tonight. Vince.