'95 Golf alarm problem...

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Darryl - 06 Jan 2007 14:58 GMT

Thought I was done with VW with the passing of my '89 but I'm back.

I'm looking at a '95 Golf that's been sitting for over a
year--battery's dead and when I try to boost the car, the car alarm
kicks in. The owners don't know how to defeat it. Don't know if it's
a factory setup. Suggestions (besides the dealer)?

TIA!
Darryl.

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Mark Randol - 06 Jan 2007 16:04 GMT

> Thought I was done with VW with the passing of my '89 but I'm back.
>
> I'm looking at a '95 Golf that's been sitting for over a
> year--battery's dead and when I try to boost the car, the car alarm
> kicks in. The owners don't know how to defeat it. Don't know if it's
> a factory setup. Suggestions (besides the dealer)?

If the ?owners? don't know how to turn off the alarm, I'd be cautious
about the car otherwise.

That said, hopefully it's factory, and it hasn't been messed with. On
those assumptions...

When reconnecting a battery, the alarm will go off. To reset, lock then
unlock one of the doors.

Some of the common points of failure are:
- bad battery. If the battery has about had it, the alarm can do some
odd things.
- rear door wiring harness. Wires break, sometimes only internally, in
the hinge area, setting off the alarm. Pull back the boot, look and
feel the wires.
- hood sensor switch. A switch by the coolant overflow tank (ball) that
when it doesn't make good contact with the hood can set off the alarm.
Particularly vexing when the hood heats up during the day, expands and
warps just enough to make the poorly adjusted switch think someone
opened the hood setting off the alarm.
- trunk lock switch wire. Breaks off from the flexing, similar to the
door harness, but it'll generally come off totally. Opening the trunk
with the key sets off the alarm.
- front door harnesses. Not as common as the rear, but it happens.
- door switches. Sometimes the switches gum up or fail and set it off.

Mark
'95 Jetta GLS

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Darryl - 06 Jan 2007 22:08 GMT

Thanks Mark and Dave,

The owners took the car to a non-VW shop for service but besides what
I'm guessing is a bad idle air mix (I'll tune it up and have the VW
set up the engine), everything seems to be in working order (I used to
rebuild 020's so I'm not too worried about anything mechanical--just
the electrical).

I'll try the alarm trick tomorrow--seems simple enough. I figured it
was some elaborate series of signals and pedal presses while using VW
tool XXX to short one of the light bulb sockets :-).

TTYL!
Darryl.
Every minute I drive a North American car, I get weaker.

>> Thought I was done with VW with the passing of my '89 but I'm back.
>>
[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]
>Mark
>'95 Jetta GLS

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dave AKA vwdoc1 - 06 Jan 2007 18:35 GMT

lol............once bitten by the VW, and you like to drive.........you WILL
come back usually! ;-)

install a good battery (I personally am not fond of jumping a dead battery)
lock & unlock driver's door with key should deactivate alarm

NOTE: the alarm will/should sound when you hook the jumper cables up and the
Golf gets power = NORMAL

BTW I have seen bad wiring on the 94-98 Jettas either lock doors or roll
down windows by themselves. So I suggest you roll the driver's window down
just in case this Golf tries to lock the doors. ;-)

later,
dave
(One out of many daves)
http://vwdoc1.tripod.com/

> Thought I was done with VW with the passing of my '89 but I'm back.
>
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> TIA!
> Darryl.

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