My brother's '99 Jetta GL manual 2.0 will not start. He had absolutely no power. No lights, no radio, no fan and no alarm. He thought battery I thought something else because it ran the afternoon before. We attempted to jump the battery. After about 5 minutes he tried to start the car. There was no sound of the starter just silence. However, a dome light did work and his gauges started jumping around and the speedometer would move up to 20 mph and return to zero and would continue to do this even when he was in Acc. position. He had his battery checked and it was charged up. He did have his dash and gauges replaced about six months ago. Any Ideas at this time would be helpful.

Brother of someone tossing money down a hole.

 

Weird. I would've guessed a dead battery because of a bad alternator based on the fact that the car was running fine the day before its demise. But if the battery is still charged...hmmm. However, it could still be the alternator since you just jumped the battery. When my alternator went, the car was dead with some panels lights flashing when I attempted to start. A jump got the battery charged, but it was short-lived. I was able to drive it about 15-miles before the car died. How old is the battery?

Or, maybe the starter is bad?