Glanders
Guest
Hello all.
Just bought a cheapo 51 plate Leon 1.4S from a mate, with a small selection of known electrical problems chucked in for free. Just had it MOT'ed and it seems like a pretty sound car, so I'd really like to iron out some or all of the electrical issues and try and hang onto it for a bit. I have done a fair bit of googling and there seem to be all manner of electrical problems dogging VAG cars of this vintage, but nothing that quite matches mine. So I thought I'd list the various bits and bobs and see whether anyone here can make any sense of it! In no particular order, they are as follows;
1. Quiet but audible clicking noise coming from behind the steering wheel. This is loud enough to hear while driving (just), but easily drowned out with the radio. It's quite rapid (several times a second) and seems to come from behind the fuse panel on the drivers side end of the dashboard. Apparently this was intermittent at first, but now happens all the time the doors are unlocked and/or the ignition is on. There is a fuse that, once removed, stops it, but this also powers the central locking and windows...
2. No remote central locking - got the key and the battery is fine, but nada. The key in the driver's door lock will, on a seemingly random basis, lock/unlock all four doors and the boot, just the front doors, or the front doors and one of the rear doors. Normally, if you go through a few lock/unlock cycles, you can get to where you want.
3. Interior lights (ceiling, boot and puddle) all seem to come on at the appropriate time (eg when doors are opened), but are very weak and flash in time with the clicking noise. Removing a bulb from one of these lights seems to change the frequency of the click.
4. Battery seems to drain very quickly. I last drove the car on Thursday evening, went back to it this morning (Monday) and the battery was dead. My mate had mentioned that the battery sometimes seemed to struggle to hold a charge, but I'd naively assumed this would be a problem if it was left for a fortnight in the winter, not three nights in the summer.
5. Electric windows seem to work fine - no problem here, but I thought it was worth mentioning, since a lot of similar problems in other people's threads seem to involve the windows.
I might be clutching at straws, but I'm hoping that some or all of these are related, and that there's some kind of protocol for sorting it out. Probably sounds like a bit of a dog, but money's tight and, compared to the P-reg Astra I've been driving fro the last six years, it's a dream! I'm by no means an experienced mechanic, but I'm happy to get stuck in and have been able to do most routine jobs (brakes, exhaust, suspension etc) myself on previous cars. Any suggestions would be massively appreciated!
Thanks.
Just bought a cheapo 51 plate Leon 1.4S from a mate, with a small selection of known electrical problems chucked in for free. Just had it MOT'ed and it seems like a pretty sound car, so I'd really like to iron out some or all of the electrical issues and try and hang onto it for a bit. I have done a fair bit of googling and there seem to be all manner of electrical problems dogging VAG cars of this vintage, but nothing that quite matches mine. So I thought I'd list the various bits and bobs and see whether anyone here can make any sense of it! In no particular order, they are as follows;
1. Quiet but audible clicking noise coming from behind the steering wheel. This is loud enough to hear while driving (just), but easily drowned out with the radio. It's quite rapid (several times a second) and seems to come from behind the fuse panel on the drivers side end of the dashboard. Apparently this was intermittent at first, but now happens all the time the doors are unlocked and/or the ignition is on. There is a fuse that, once removed, stops it, but this also powers the central locking and windows...
2. No remote central locking - got the key and the battery is fine, but nada. The key in the driver's door lock will, on a seemingly random basis, lock/unlock all four doors and the boot, just the front doors, or the front doors and one of the rear doors. Normally, if you go through a few lock/unlock cycles, you can get to where you want.
3. Interior lights (ceiling, boot and puddle) all seem to come on at the appropriate time (eg when doors are opened), but are very weak and flash in time with the clicking noise. Removing a bulb from one of these lights seems to change the frequency of the click.
4. Battery seems to drain very quickly. I last drove the car on Thursday evening, went back to it this morning (Monday) and the battery was dead. My mate had mentioned that the battery sometimes seemed to struggle to hold a charge, but I'd naively assumed this would be a problem if it was left for a fortnight in the winter, not three nights in the summer.
5. Electric windows seem to work fine - no problem here, but I thought it was worth mentioning, since a lot of similar problems in other people's threads seem to involve the windows.
I might be clutching at straws, but I'm hoping that some or all of these are related, and that there's some kind of protocol for sorting it out. Probably sounds like a bit of a dog, but money's tight and, compared to the P-reg Astra I've been driving fro the last six years, it's a dream! I'm by no means an experienced mechanic, but I'm happy to get stuck in and have been able to do most routine jobs (brakes, exhaust, suspension etc) myself on previous cars. Any suggestions would be massively appreciated!
Thanks.
