Glow Plugs on '82 Rabbit Diesel

My daughter has a '82 Rabbit Diesel.

The yellow light in the instrument panel (indicating the glow plugs are operating) comes on intermittently after the car is running. Normally the light would not come on again until you have stopped the engine and went to restart it.

I have cleaned the ground wire to the relay box which is located under the dash (left side) but it hasn't made any difference. The glow plugs were replaced about two years ago but this problem only started about 6 months ago. Otherwise, the car starts well even in cold weather.

Can anyone tell me where I could look to solve the problem. I'd really like to fix it before it ruins the glow plugs.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Wray

Reply to
Wray McDonnell
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The '85 Diesel Golf glow plug light will blink if the sensor detects water in the water separator. Don't know if '82's had water separators.

Denny Two '85 Diesel Golfs

Reply to
Dennis M. Straussfogel

Reply to
Jo Bo

I don't think rabbits had water seperators and neither did the 85 golf I had but the 86 golf I had did. If you have one, it's under the car, passanger side rear seat. There is a drain plug on a white plastic box. As for your flashing, my 85 golf did that. It took a couple of hours but I found a wire in a harness under the dash, one end going to the glow plug relay, to be causing the problem. It was shorting internally. I cut it on both ends where it went into the harness and ran a new wire. This was on a 85 golf and it may be differnet but the relay for the 85 and 86 was the same except the 85 didn't have the water seperator light blinking feature. See if you can borrow a 85 and up golf/jetta book and compare it to what you have and check it that way.

Jo Bo

PS wait for warm weather!

Reply to
Jo Bo

Reply to
verndog

Let me tell everyone what I have done to try to solve this problem.

  1. On an '82 Rabbit, there is no connection between the yellow indicator light and the water separator. So that cannot be the cause of the yellow "glow light" indicator coming on intermittently.

  1. I pulled out the relay from under the dash where all the other relays are located. I took the relay apart but found that it was clean and dry, so put it back together. Cleaned the terminal posts and connectors on the relay and plugged it back in. The problem continued, so that was not the solution.

  2. I cleaned the battery terminals and cables including the ground connections to the frame and chassis. The problem continued, so that was not the solution.

  1. I took a pair of jumper cables (normally used to jump start a car with a low battery), and I hooked one end to the ground post on the battery and connected the other end to various parts of the car. The yellow indicator light went out when I touched the engine, transmission, alternator, and all those parts BUT it did not go out when I connected it to the frame or light metals on the dash, or fenders, etc. So I conclude that the problem is in the ground connection between the battery and engine, etc. As short term solution, I hooked up a No 4 wire between the battery ground post and the alternator and that seems to solve the problem.

  2. On a nicer weather day, I'll get under the car and check out all the ground connections to see if that will fully cure the problem. Would seem that they need cleaning and perhaps even new wiring.

If you can see any problems with my approach to the problem, please let me know. Thanks

Thanks to those of you that responded to my question.

Wray

Reply to
Wray McDonnell

sounds like you found the problem Wray! :-) ground strap to transmission mount bracket is bad or making a poor electrical connection. let us know your solution or fix! later, dave

Reply to
dave AKA vwdoc1

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