Total lights failure

Hi
Just got a 1989 GTI cabriolet. While driving home the night I collected it the lights just turned off. I held in the stalk and the headlights remained on. But when released no lights at all. So after approximately 1 minute or less all lights would come back on. Very scary at the time. This happened all the way home. Any thoughts what the problem may be??? Perhaps a faulty head/dim/indicator switch?
I hope somebody knows of this problem.
Thank you

It's good to be back in a Golf. I had a 1983 GTI 20 years ago then a '91 16valve.
 

Sounds like it was a headlight switch or bad ground….
Grounds are everything….
See my signature.

Thank you… by switch do you mean the dim/headlights stalk? Yes reading your other posts I understand it's all about the good grounds!

No the main headlight on/off/park switch on the dash.
Load reduction relay as did other things stop as well as possible bad ignition switch.


 

No it was just the lights…but I was just focused on keeping the car on the road! I will order a new switch anyway and check all the grounds. Thank you.
My rev counter or computer do not work. Just thought I'd mention that Incase it was relevant. I intend to swap out the clocks at some point.

The clocks not working is probably a bad ground (earth) too.

Briano1234  has a great fix for that too  

Ian

There should be a brown earth wire on the side of the engine rocker cover and another thicker earth wire from the same bolt going to the bracket of the coil, check both wires are there and the connection on the thinner brown wire is good, often they are just hanging on by a few threads of wire to the ring connector as the wire gets knocked about when cleaning/working around that area.

Thank you so much for all the information. I hope I sort out the little gremlins !

Found the earth wire from the rocker head to be very damaged 5 inches down wires exposed. So I gave it a wiggle at the break and started the car the rev counter came to life then died immediately. So I cut the wire and just twisted the two wires together and started again but nothing. The wire needs replacing I think. Am I on the right track?

Grounds are everything.
The answer is yes.

I would check the battery to frame and frame to engine grounds. Check hades, I would just replace them.

There is no wire from the rocker cover  to the bracket of the coil. although there appears to be empty connectors. I assume there shoud be?

YES

thank you

Just had a go at it again. The earth strap from the bracket of the coil was not connected. just hanging there. so I put that back on to the rocker cover. tried to mend the other earth from the rocker cover but nothing happening. i think the wire is rusted right through.

Have you had a good look at the fuse box, shine a torch around the area and look for any signs of water, especially at the top, common problem for water to flood in if the drain holes in scuttle area under the bonnet are not kept clear.

I'll have a look. The car was garaged for the past 3 years.

Electrics are my best subject but when I had problems with my dash/instruments I had to remove the instruments and found the brown earth wire going to the instruments and cut it a few cm down and fitted a new bit of wire to the metal frame and my problem was fixed, I then added another earth wire to the earth claw by the fuse box so 2 earths are running from the instruments.

Briano1234 has a guide on this and also bulk out the connection to the instruments by adding a couple turns of tape underneath the blue plastic circuit board.
Be very careful when removing the instruments as you don't want to damage any thing and make sure you remove the earth lead from the battery before doing anything so there is no power.  

Thank you. I'll get someone to do that and show them this advice. That's way beyond my ability!

It is straight forward removing the instruments and not that difficult, there's a big electrical connector on the bottom of instruments and that's where the main brown earth wire is.

Guide here so you get an idea of what's involed.

How to remove instrument cluster and replace illumination bulbs - The Mk1 Golf Owners Club

Hmmmmm maybe I could do that. I'll give it a try! Thank you again. Could Briano 1234 share with me how to do the earth behind the clocks please?