Electrical woes...

Hi,

I am unfortunately suffering a number of electrical problems with my Golf which are making it undrivable. The wipers are turning the engine off and when I thought it was the wiper relay and removed this from the fuse box the car would still drive but kept stuttering and eventually cut out and wouldn't start.

I took it to an auto electricians but the problem seemed to have hidden itself and they couldn't find any fault but suggested it may have been the ignition switch that was causing the wipers to turn the engine off.

I think that a more likely cause is water getting in to the passenger footwell from somewhere. Can anyone help me out with an idiots guide to finding leaks or are there any areas the Golf is particularly weak?

Is there any way to sort this out and protect against it I see it is a common problem and its keeping my Golf off the road  

Other issues which may or may not be related…..

- Sometimes the indicators give up and I just get a solid green light on the dash
- Sometimes the wipers don't work and just cause a buzzing from the relay plate or turn the car off completely
- On one occassion turning off the fan switch seemed to kill power to the engine and turning it back on sorted it. This only happened once but was very weird.

Help needed pls….
 
 
On another unrelated issues I picked up some Bosch (15/15s) wipers for the Golf from halfords today and the brackets don't fit the arms.

They are clearly desgined for the right type of mechanism (i.e. has a hole for the nipple on the arm to slot into) but the arm is much wider than the bracket will take and they don't fit. Where do you guys buy your wipers from?

All advice is much appreciated.  

have you had the fuse box completly out?
label any wires hanging out…most should be keyed so they only go back in one place.
clean all connectors up that you can, i replaced all the relays
and fuses.
was all good after that….or you will have intermittant probs all the time

I think that a more likely cause is water getting in to the passenger footwell from somewhere. Can anyone help me out with an idiots guide to finding leaks or are there any areas the Golf is particularly weak?

Under the front scuttle next to the heater is a a painted tar pad [sound proffer] . This can hide rotten holed metal and any water simply drains in to the fuze board and or passenger footwell .

Check this area , lift a corner of the pad a check for holes etc . You could even get an assistance to pour some water around this area while you look under the dash with a torch .

I found a huge hole under mine .     :mrgreen:

thanks for the reply I will look into getting that done.

Where do you get wipers for your mk1?

Allardice said

Where do you get wipers for your mk1?

 :wink: Car Parts & Spares -- Buy Online with Fast UK Delivery | GSF Car Parts

got my blades from GSF. they are bosh as well. no problems with mine.

wipers ?1.25 from wilko or ?1.00 from scooby doo's but last 6 mnths till need replacing.

electricle problem could be worst case water inside your fuseboard and corroded or bridged some of the paths