Golf IV / Jetta IV :: Battery Died - Alternator Malfunction
Apr 8, 2015
Been the proud owner of a '04 Golf for a few years but it hasn't been without its share of hiccups. I recently had my battery die on me. Got the car looked at and apparently the alternator was the culprit, ie, it wasn't functioning and re-charging the battery. Swapped out the OEM for a rebuilt Bosch 120A (my car is a 2.0GL, so it's supposed to be 90a default, but I looked online and saw that I could use the 120). Even put in a new battery as the old one was past its prime. Now the new alternator (which was not fun to install) isn't working either. I had a different mechanic look at it and they said that while the auto shop gave me the right part number, that apparently VWs are hinky with aftermarket parts and I'd have to take it to a VW dealer for a diagnostic? Makes no sense as I've seen tons of people online who've used aftermarket alternators with no problem.
So now the car essentially is dead in the water. Battery light comes on when the car is started and I'm not tempted to not drive the car anywhere out of fear that the new battery will die in mid-traffic. I've checked the grounds, pulley, etc, everything looks fine and connected proper. What could be going on?
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Short version is that my battery is not staying charged. I drive the car daily and am not having any serious issues except for having to put a charger on overnight about once a month or so since this past winter. The current battery (Optima red top) has never gone dead and has been more reliable than the original, it just cranks progressively slower each time I start the car until the day comes that I decide to put the charger on again.
All the lights flicker and dim when driving at night, and have been like that for a few years. When it began, I had the charging system checked three separate times. Once at the dealership who told me everything was fine, once at an Advance Auto who said all was well except for there being an above normal load on the battery with the engine/all accessories off , and once at an alternator/electric motor specialist who said all was well except that the alternator was not capable of generating enough to keep the battery charged long term. They said if I ever got stuck in traffic and sat at idle with the ac/stereo on for an extended period that I shouldn't shut it off since I may not have enough power to crank it again . At first I thought they were going to suggest that I have them repair/rebuild/upgrade it somehow, but they really had no interest in doing so.
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I am having a really curious issue with the charging system on my 1999 Golf VR6. The battery will not charge and the alternator seems to be nonfunctional. While running the voltage at the battery starts normal but drops until the engine dies within 20 minutes. Over the last two days I have replaced the alternator, battery, and the battery grounding cable with no change in behavior. The exciter wire on the alternator is showing 9 volts when the vehicle is running and 0 when it is off. There is 1.6 ohms of resistance between the B+ terminal on the battery and the respective terminal on the alternator. There is 0.3 ohms of resistance between the B- battery terminal and the case of the alternator. My task for tomorrow is to trace the exciter wire back to the cluster and try to troubleshoot it there.
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I have a 2000 VW Golf 2.slow. I have done some research from other threads but I'm wondering if mine is a simpler fix then testing all the wiring. After taking the car to Auto-Zone and having my battery and alternator tested they said the alternator was the problem. I had to wait a day to get paid to buy the alternator so I had them charge the battery. After I put the battery back in and started her up I got a flashing e-brake light, ABS light and no A/C. My A/C clutch compressor isn't kicking in either. I checked my brake fluid and it's fine as well.
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This is my first VW. My first European car at all. I've been having what I think are battery issues, but they're weird. Every... I'd say 3rd or 4th start, I just get the clickclickclickclickclick thing. Then I jump it and it starts fine. When I don't have to jump it, it's been starting rough. When I jump it is the only time it starts smoothly. To me that screams battery.
The other day, I went to start it and it wouldn't start. But I had nothing to do that day so I went back inside and did whatever. Went out about 5 hours later, and it started just fine.
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I am having problems with ALL my driver door electronics, except the fuel door. my passenger side works fine, sunroof works fine. Ive removed the door panel to look for obvious problems, like broken wires.. Fuses are good, looking for a good place to start. Power winder/locks.
Little update, i reset my battery and they worked, waited like twenty minutes, nothing works again.. why would i have to reset the battery every time for the windows to work?
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About 2 or so weeks ago, I picked up an .:R for a STEAL! I don't have all that much to complain about (because let's face it, it's an R32 ...) but I have noticed a few issues with it that I am hoping are related.
During one car ride I needed to charge my phone, but unfortunately the 12v port doesn't work (I checked all of the side panel fuses and even changed the whole jack, nothing). Another issue that I noticed, was that the passenger door lock intermittently works... sometimes it will work, and other times I have to unlock the door by opening it from the inside. On those freak occasions when it does work, than the driver's door lock won't work... That being irritating in itself, tonight I went to pop the hatch, and it wouldn't unlock! I had to put the key in to open it... that was the first time that I had encountered this issue...
My question is, could all of these issues be related somehow? I highly doubt that all of the lock modules are faulty.The PO did have a record about having the issue checked by the dealership, but they couldn't recreate it.
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I had a battery light come on and saw the alt wasnt charging my battery. So, I replaced the alt with a rebuilt hitachi. Well it was charging at 14.10 and thought all was well til I went out this weekend and was stranded. Tested the alt with my voltmeter and sometimes its 14 and sometimes the battery drops below 12. I charged the battery up overnight and its holding a good charge. I REALLY dont wanna drop this alternator out again so is there anything else I should check? Im getting the battery tested anyway.
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After changing my dead alternator and resulting dead battery, I am having what seems to be electrical issues with my 2.8L VR6.
Neither of my keys can unlock or lock the car remotely and when I try to start the car, all the regular lights turn on in the dash, but the engine dosn't make a sound. Inside the car there is no power apart form the gauges, no windows, no AC, no sunroof, nothing. I have checked the fuses, unplugged the battery and plugged it back in, even changed the batteries in my keys to make sure that they weren't out, and nothing works. I have also tried to reprogram both keys and neither of them unlock the doors.
I think that it might have something to do with the anti-theft system, since I didn't touch anything while changing out the alternator.
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My car is a 2.0 AEG manual for reference.
So, my alternator died last night and when I changed it this morning, I fired her up and now when I turn my light switch one click I can see my high beam light illuminated on the dash. If I have the switch on any setting, it's illuminated but no lights are on out front except the dtr lights. Turn signals work fine and so do the brake/tail lights. I checked the fuses for both low/high beams but they were fine. I saw someone mention an ignition switch while I was searching but I'd rather get other opinions whether it is that or not.
Edit: My original test drive the car ran fine minus the headlight issue. But upon driving it through the city when I was coming to a stop at a redlight the battery light came back on and it died. It fired right back up and barely made it across the street to a parking lot before it died again. It'll fire up but won't stay on. On my way to an parts store for charging system check.
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Searched and found you tube video to get battery out but doesn't work on my fob. Mine slides open and once opened can't find battery, Vw shop if closed, can't lock or unlock doors?
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I had a rebuilt alternator installed on Thursday and for the past two days when I start up the car there is a high pitch whine coming from what I believe is the alternator. Do some rebuilt alternators make noise when charging the batter after start-up? The alternator has a 3-year warranty and I'm going back to the shop tomorrow.
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So im trying to diagnose my girlfriends issue with her car. When she starts it, the car will make a very loud rattling sound, not really grinding, but like metal on metal contact. Sometimes the sound goes away, but when the car is cold it is a guarantee. The battery light is also on, which was not the case when the rattle first started. I first thought (and hoped) it was perhaps the serpentine belt tensioner as I researched that when it fails it can make a loud rattle sound.
Once replaced, the same issues occurred. So I went ahead and put the old one back on since it was not the issue. Note that the old one and new one both shared the same tension applied to the belt and the pulley was still smooth without issues.
Using a stethoscope to try to determine the location of the rattle a bit more precisely I found the noise to be coming more from the alternator. Weird because I recently replaced it within the last year. I went ahead and removed the tension from the belt and played with the alternator for a bit. The clutch felt good when i used a screw driver to hold the fan and tried to move the pulley. One direction moved with ease while the other direction refused to budge, perfectly normal as I researched. The thing that I noticed that I thought was unusual was the fact that the shaft of the alternator had some play (Video below).
The belt has plenty of tension on it so i do not believe that it is slipping on the alternator. I push the belt with the tensioner engaged and the tensioner does not budge.
I decided to measure the voltage coming off the alternator with the car running and it was at 10.95 which im pretty sure is very low for these cars.
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I own a 2002 Jetta 1.8T now here is my story.
A week ago whiles driving lost power when accelerating, EPC light illuminates so I turned on my hazard light and limped home since I was far away from home. As I limped home, all the lights on the dash went off. I got home, shut engine off, restarted the car but car wont accelerate.
I popped the hood and saw the dreaded melted fuse box on top of battery with charred alternator cable. I ordered the fuse box and alternator cable and prepared to replace them.
I realized that with the driver side door open with no key in ignition, I could hear a clicking sound with inside lights blinking. Didn't worry because I believed it had to do with the melted fuse box and charred alternator cable. I noticed that the clock was off too.
I replaced.the fuse box and alternator cable. My battery is just a year old so when I tried starting the car and it won't crank, I tried to jump start it but no sound. Car won't start. Dead silence,no click nothing.
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My car has the original battery and it hasn't given me issue. Even a few weeks back when most of the country was really frozen and the car was parked outside, it started fine.
Last week after a work day in the parking lot, she was dead-dead. No dome light, no cluster, no lock LED. After 5 minutes tethered to a friend's battery via jumpers, it quickly showed interior electricity but the starter strained. 5 minutes more and the car started like nothing happened. Last weekend after a movie, the car was dead-dead again. I opened the door to see if I could hear the starter to determine how dead it was and the dome/cluster lights came back and it started fast.
The car sat for 36 hours or so and started fine, even after pretty substantial temp drops. Got around town for the past 2 days, no issue.
Today the car was dead again. Jumped it off my Mk2 and went on my way. It started fine and got me to Advanced Auto where their battery tester read 400 CCA and their info showed spec was 430 CCA. They didn't want to sell me a battery yet and suggested an overnight trickle charge and to monitor the issue.
If it was just a dead battery requiring a jump, I'd replace it. But the other oddities + the seemingly good test #'s makes me wonder what else I'm seeing.
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Ok, so I ran my car battery COMPLETELY dead the other day. After replacing the battery and checking to ensure that it had sufficient power, i tried starting it. It cranks over very solid, but will not start. I sent it to the dealer, and their diagnostic tools receive question marks back from all the modules. This has led us to the conclusion that my ECU (ECM) needs to be reset, or has malfunctioned in some way. There is an aftermarket flash on the ECU, but I do not know by which company as it was flashed when I bought the car. How can I do a hard reset on the ECU?
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I was recently driving home when I made a left hand turn and the car died. I had the timing belt and water pump replaced 1,800 miles ago. It sounds like a timing issue to me. The last time I had timing issue it wouldn't run. This time it runs. Attached is a video of me starting it with the camera looking at the timing belt. The noise I heard made me shut it off. I did not want to cause more damage.
[URL] .....
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Driving home on the highway today, not boosting, just regular driving. Car was acting fine, then just shut off. Tried starting, and it would crank, but not actually start.
Got it towed home. Scanned. Two codes: 01314, Engine Control Module. And again, 01314, Engine Control Module. Tried clearing codes, and it says "comm. error". Im using the VAG Check scanner from ECStuning, has always worked fine.
Thought it could be fuel pump, but the fuel pump primes when I open the door. I did notice that the throttle body refuses to align when I put the key in the second position, when it always has before. Radio works, all presets work. Unplugged the battery for a half hour, replugged, nothing. I'm leaving it unplugged overnight to see if that does anything.
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My battery went dead so I replaced with new. This did not fix the problem so I replaced the alternator. It's working now but the battery light stays on. I think I still have a problem.
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2002 Ford Focus SE with 130k miles on it. For the past 4 months the battery light flashes randomly while driving. The flashing and frequency of flashing doesn't seem related to anything I can tell including temperature, length of time the car is running, speed or any variable. Seems like it should be an alternator, but that was replaced less than an year ago and it also has a new battery. The alternator always checks out fine at the mechanic and it will never flash for the mechanic. It went 1 month with no flashing and suddenly it will now flash maybe 20 times in a 5 mile drive. Yesterday it just died at a stoplight with no warning, but then after shutting everything off it started just fine and the battery light didn't turn on for the 2 miles to home.
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Previously, I have had no rough starts or other starting issues, and no issues with my battery, which is 4 years old. I left work and had some errands to run--started my car, drove about 1/2 mile. Started my car again, and drove about 1/4 mile. Started my car again, and drove about 2 miles and stopped at a gas station. Started my car again and drove 2.5 miles.
This time, my car started fine, and I began to take off (moving forward--no car in the space in front of me) and after about 5-10 feet my engine died. I haven't been able to start it since. The starter is turning well, but I don't hear anything firing, and giving it gas as I hold the key over does nothing.
Where should I start? I have a video of trying to start, I may try and upload to Dropbox and post. Car is a 2004 Jetta GLS with 247k, and I currently have no DTCs stored (checked using a generic OBDII scanner, not a Vag).
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