Lights going haywire

[Nickabocker]

Good evening,

Now i know what i am about to ask isn't on a ford and all but I'm in direr need of some opinions.

The vehicle is a 2003 Volkswagen Jetta 5 speed Manuel

The issue is only noticeable at night

When we are driving at night in my fiances' car everything will be going good then BAM out of no where the dash lights will start to flicker on and off fast and if they aren't flashing if you pay real close attention the lights are blinking really really fast to fast for the human eye to see in a basic surrounding. I know lots of details. Also sometimes it will only do it when the car is parked, and other times it will do it when we are driving on the highway.

Now on top of it being predictable like that. I was driving it yesterday and when i slowed down to go around a "round-about" intersection it shut ALL LIGHTS OFF headlights, Dash lights, Tail lights. Then about 5 seconds later they popped back on. The car stayed running by the way.

Any Ideas? im going to be working on the car tomorrow replacing a bad o2 sensor so if you have any ideas I'd appreciate it.

Nick

[fordman]

sounds light a power outage or shortage to or from the headlight switch. something in that general idea. someplace where they all come together at maybe the turn signal switch. it depends on where they come together at i guess. i had a 68 olds 88 that woudl do a similar thing. when you turned a corner or done a u turn it woudl shut off al the lights . if you turned the steerign wheel they woudl come back on sooner or later. but not always the steering wheel turning fixed it.

[knightfire83]

First off, I knew nothing about the Volkswagen Jetta before your post. A quick search around the internet says that the 90's thru early 2000's Volkswagen's are plagued with electrical problems, not just the Jetta model.

Some similar problems and solutions:
Fuse related- http://www.vwforum.com/forums/f15/jetta ... elp-26765/

Battery related- http://www.cars-guide.com/volkswagen-fo ... t1338.html

Design related- http://www.fixya.com/cars/t598672-volks ... flickering

Alt. cable related- http://www.justanswer.com/questions/2t9 ... licker-dim

And probably the best one to check out: Ignition switch related- http://forums.motivemag.com/zerothread?id=2466896

Heres the google link I was searching thru: http://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=off&q ... d5ec9ae78f

Good Luck.

[Nickabocker]

after running some mroe seraches my luck turned me to this

http://www.justanswer.com/questions/1w5 ... instrument

took the connector off the plug and viola there was coolent there cleaned it out and now they arent doing it

nick

[ezernut9mm]

wow, really? "coolant migration"? . vw should've stuck to air cooled engines.

[fordman]

oh i didnt catch that. i forgot about that.

[Nickabocker]

ok so i know i posted this back in January but i wanted to ask again, after finding the coolant migration issue thinking i had fixed it i must have just pretty much stuck a band aid on the issue, recently the car will still do the flickering but after looking around the car and messing with the dimming switch on the dash i noticed if i turn it to the middle setting all of a sudden the lights would stop flickering. so one problem fixed and solution found but then yet again more things started popping up.

The drive side tail light (not brake just tail) is being sporadic randomly the light will decide to work and then decide not to... bulbs and fuses are good. and then when im driving down the road very rarely but still happens, the entire car will shut off when i come to a stop and a stop sign, stop light ETC just randomly

[Thunderfoot]

Some of that sounds like some bad Ground connections... Check and clean you the ground wire connection from the Battery to the engine and then the one from the engine to the chassis/firewall.