Hi All,

It's been 2.5 weeks ago since I just purchased a 2003 Jetta w/ 53K miles on it. It looks great, runs good and is so fun to drive. The second week I had it, the car had shut off while idling. So, I took it back to the dealer and they replaced the alternator, generator and regulator at no cost, since I'm still under the 60 day warranty (THANK GOD!). Those parts had not been replaced in 6 years, so I assume it's your normal wear n tear. Just this past weekend, while the car was off, I take out an old car vac, plug it into the lighter and started to vaccum away for about 2 minutes. I turn the car on, and while it's idling for a few minutes, it shuts off. It turns back on, drove it half a block and again it shuts off. It shut off a third time and that's when I rolled up to the dealer and was like WTF! The dealership just happened to be a few blocks away. They run the diagnostics and came up with a low voltage reading from the harness. They kept her and said they were going to check everything, but most likely they needs to replace the harness to the alternator. I said fine, do your thing, call me Monday and off I went. My question(s) to all you VW lovers, owners, experts...

1- Do you think that by me plugging in the vac made it made matters worse?
2- If they replaced all other components, why didn't they replace the dang harness too?
3- Is it normal wear n tear for all these components to fail after 6 years?

I have yet to hear from them this morning, so I'm patiently waiting until 2pm.

What do you guys/gals have to say---I'm all eyes!

Thank you in advance.

-Mel

 

The only thing I can think of is they broke the harness and it is putting a drain on your battery hence, the car stops running. I don't think the vacuum had anything to do with it.

 

Well, they ended up replacing my alternator for the second time! grrr! I asked if it was the harness as they originally assumed, but the mechanic at the dealership showed me the breakdown. He said the first thing he checked was the battery and it was good, second was the harness and it was reading low. Then he checked the whole system again and the alternator was the only thing coming up low. Is it possible to to have your alternator replaced this many times? I saw that they had to replace the generator and regulator like the last time. I'm not sure if this is the procedure. I know it's not a brand new car. I'm just afraid that this will be a constant and if it is, then they can take their car back and put me in a lease with the same terms as I'm paying now.

 

Hi,

So, what was the outcome and how is your Jetta running now? Did you ever get that message displaying on your dashboard, "alternator workshop!"??

I also have a 2003 Jetta VR6 with the very same issue and the aftermarket Alternator replaced twice now within a year.

Please share your thought on this as I am trying to troubleshoot the problem without taking the car to the stealership.

Thanks,

Jay

 

Jat, I wish I had the solution to give you. Since November, I traded the 03' Jetta in and leased a New 2010 Jetta. I'm so glad I was able to get out of that headache after 6 months. I took it to another VW specialist and not even they could figure out what the issue was. I had all my ground wires checked and all was fine. The only ground they didn't check was the one behind the dash. I believe that may have been suspect, only because I realized there was a crack on the dashboard plastic/glass, so it looked like they must have removed it in the past. That's just me assuming, but who knows. Anyways, they said in order for them to catch it they would need my car for a while, but that intermittent electrical issues are hard to catch. I would take it in all the time to Pep Boys to check my battery and alternator and everything would check OK, but I still lost sleep over this "flickering" demon, cause I was always fearful that one day when I'll be on the road, the whole car would eventually shut down on me. Thank God, no more stresses with that anymore and it really helps to have "Worry Free Maintenance" from VW! The 2010 is such a great drive, no issues (knock on wood), and I think they get better with time. So, good luck and I hope you either get it figured out OR drive it until something major happens. That's what they told me! Go figure. Much luck to you! And if you ever figure your issue out, please share. I'm still baffled about the whole thing!

 

Jat,

I have a similar problem with my 2003 Jetta right now. For some reason, one of the fuses on top of the battery is melting the fuse panel. It's the fuse that is connected to the alternator. Check your fuse panel and see if it's been melted by a bad fuse. If so, then they are totally ripping you off with the new alternators. It could be the fuse, the alternator cable, the ring terminal that connects the end of the alternator cable to the battery, the alternator harness or some loose connection that's causing some sort of unbalanced voltage. Here's a picture of the problem I'm having: http://img340.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=1004850.jpg. If yours looks like this, check out this forum:http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4682918

Hopefully it will help you. This seems to be a common problem among Volkswagens.

 

Hi genericashorthair,

I know what you're taking about now and thanks for the visual issues as well. However, my connection wire that you've indicated in the picture is perfect and I see no issues with the wire or the fuse on top of the battery.

Please do keep me posted as you discovered or isolated the issue.

Thanks,

Jay

 

I'm assuming the problem wasn't the alternator or the fuse box or a particular fuse as one user mentioned. I'm having a similar problem and the root of the problem is the cable from the alternator to the battery. This is a known issue that had multiple problems associated with it such as car dieing at idle, melting fuse box, battery issue, starting issues, etc. I'm currently dealing with this and it's not an easy cable to change. Hope this helps and good luck.