2004 Beetle cluster problem maybe?

Some suggestions would be great if someone has them.

'04 Beetle TDI 27x,xxx on the clock.

Customer was driving vehicle home, I can't recall the exact wording (working on getting that scenario again), but IIRC the car lost power and all cluster lights went out.

Customer got home, attempted to restart. Engine would fire, lights on, engine would die, classic immo problem.

Car comes over on the hook, but suffers broken oil pan on the way. As I have not had the opportunity to replace the pan, I have not duplicated the symptoms.

What I do know - key on engine off - odo flickers rapidly, power spoiler light flashes dimly & rapidly (car doesn't have power spoiler), battery light on (normal for key on engine off). No other lights come on (no cel, no glow plug light). Battery has power (power windows work at normal speed, headlights & interior lights bright).

Fuses are all intact & transfer power (test light). I do not suspect power supply problems up stream of the fuse box.

Note missing addresses in auto scan. VCDS cannot communicate to these addresses and assumes they're not present. (engine, airbags, comfort, cluster, etc).

Maybe the cluster is dead. I hypothesize this given that it seems to act as the power train bus router on the Golf/Jetta. That said I've heard the beetle is a little different when it comes to K network...

Given that I (should per customer) have more activity on the cluster after the car fires, I'll probably glue a new pan on it and pop in my tester BEW immo delete ECU & see what comes up.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Thanks.

dieselland said:

Note missing addresses in auto scan. VCDS cannot communicate to these addresses and assumes they're not present. (engine, airbags, comfort, cluster, etc).

Maybe the cluster is dead. I hypothesize this given that it seems to act as the power train bus router on the Golf/Jetta. That said I've heard the beetle is a little different when it comes to K network...

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The cluster does act as the "router" for the CAN buses, but the K-line should still go to every module directly except for the ECU. There's a separate "W" line between the cluster and the ECU.

My gut says you have some sort of power problem in this car rather than a bad cluster.

-Uwe-

Thanks Uwe.

WD time. Maybe I'll find some common links power or ground wise between the modules that don't want to talk.

W line 'eh...as an aside this may help with a back burnered personal engine swap project.

Pull the cluster real quick takes a minute tops and inspect for coolant regress through harness to plug causing connection issues.

Alarm or door harness could be causing those flickers too, in addition to grounds under battery or even battery fuse box being faulty.

from customer:

When the instrument cluster suddenly blinking all symbols and warning lights for about 2 seconds, no alarm or beeping sounds were present. Then all went black again back to normal, except for the symbol I did not know at the far bottom left warning light cluster near tach, which faintly but clearly flickered glowing in strange way for my remaining trip home.
I anticipated perhaps I would smell some electrical smoke or smell, but nothing happened. I quickly pulled over, my car continued to run fine, I smelled nothing, and did quick eyeball inspection of the full car, but saw nothing out of ordinary.

When driving again, I noted the speedometer, tachometer, odometer and gas gauge were all frozen and no longer functioning.

I completed drive home, issue free aside from the lingering warning light and turned off my car. I went into house and did google search on these symptoms and the warning light, which indicated IMMOBILIZER and went out to re-start the car. It started for less than one second about 4 times, and clearly this electrical surge or whatever it is, fried something, and not immobilizer triggered so will not start. I checked fuses and saw no fried fuses on inspection (but could have missed one I guess)... "

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dieselland said:

Fuses are all intact & transfer power (test light). I do not suspect power supply problems up stream of the fuse box.

Click to expand...

Remember Grounds are just as important too. You mentioned the WD. They will be very helpful.

Jack@European_Parts said:

...or even battery fuse box being faulty

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Dana had some lovely photos of the melted fuse box that sits on top of the battery.

dieselland said:

W line 'eh...

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Yep, if it was only the ECU that was incommunicado the Cluster would have been prime suspect.

Confirmed kill. Dead cluster.

If you need help getting a cluster let me know .............