Rain...no start..no turn..but power

I'd check the relays on the fuse box. you didn't mention what year it was but many VW's had problem with water leaking onto the fuse box relays. To check the starter you just need to jumper 12V to the solenoid (where the smaller wire attches) with the tranny out of gear and see if the starter turns.After that it is just tracing out the 12 V from the key to the solenoid.

HTH Steve

Do you have US-spec, "passive restraint" door belts? If so, I'd suggest making sure that the starter interlock circuit isn't being fooled into thinking the driver's belt is unbuckled and thereby refusing to start.

You do have the belt buckled, right? ;^>

(I decided that, among other reasons, the amount of heart stress I had as a result of forgetting to buckle that and not having the car start after minor repairs (like installing a new headunit), it was time to make the feature go away. There are two wires going to the door that connect via the contact switch in the buckle on the door; connect them together somehow by the driver's left foot to rule out the door wiring or switch as a potential problem)

it started before without the seat belt pluged in

92.... strange... I'll let it dry out and see then... the fuse panel under the dash seemed dry... I had a problem there with my scirocco years ago... this here seems dry though..

Just about every VW i've owned over the years seemed to have a water problem. It's always been the trim around the windshield gets dried out and then water seems to gush in. What i've done is to get some urethane from Home Depot and seal around the trim. I lift the edge of the trim to pack it in. Hope the windshield doesn't have to be replaced. It will , most likely, be a relay filling with water. Those plastic caps act like a water trap due to their angle. What I did is take the caps off and let them dry out completly. Some of the contacts may be corroded, so you can take a bit of

600 grit sand paper and clean them up. Good Luck Paul Ottawa, Canada

You'd think after many days without rain, if that was the problem it would have gone away, but no... maybe the starter now, or whatever controls the starter..

so..

1. what's the easiest way to test the starter (damn thing way underneath so have to lift car to get to it

1. what specific electrical stuff related to the starter can I check?

92 jetta

It sounds like you have a gas 92 Jetta with an automatic transmission. REPLIES INSIDE:

You could check the starter energizer wire located near the heater hoses. One red wire will travel to the starter along with the positive battery cable. Using a remote starter switch (or carefully use a fat gauge wire), you could supply power to this energizer wire. This will tell you if the ign switch or anything BEFORE the starter is defective. I have seen seat belts not fastened, or seat belt starter interlock sytem malfunctioning, that might cause the starter not to work.

ground connections, wiring to the starter and the starter itself I have changed ignitin lock assemblies that did not allow a full turn of the fey (no starter operation)

later, dave Reminder........ Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them, and you have their shoes. Frieda Norris