Multiple Electrical Issues - 2005 Jetta 2.0
 

Please for the love of God help me. I am driving across the country in less than two weeks and my 2005 Jetta is having all kinds of electrical problems. I do not know anything about cars or how to fix this. Here's the order of things as they happened:

1) Took it in to U-Haul to get a hitch installed. After they hooked up the wiring in the back for the trailer lights, I drove off and noticed my stereo head wouldn't turn on. I took it back and they couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. A day later, I noticed I had a tail light out.

2) A couple days later, I took it to my local garage. They found that the U-Haul wiring in the back was just fine, and they took a tail light out and put it back in - worked fine after that. When they took the stereo out, there was some kind of little box hooked up to the wiring. They said they tested it and the box was dead, but they could get my stereo working by wiring it directly to a fuse or something. They did, and it started working.

3) After I left, there was a light on the dash indicating a problem with the airbags. It doesn't stay on after i turn the key; it comes on with all the other dash lights, then goes off for a moment and comes back on. Also, my headlights now come on as soon as I turn the key and don't turn off until I open the door; previously, they would only turn on and off when I lifted or dropped the E-brake. So now, if I'm sitting idle with just the stereo on (key turned back), the headlights and tail lights will be on.

I don't know how much of this is essential for my trip, but I'm just really frustrated (I'm also having it in next week for some non-electrical stuff that's been happening). Any insight would be appreciated.