It started out when I noticed that the signal lights front and back would stay on when I turned the key to turn my alarm on. When I turned the alarm off they still would stay lit. It was a nuisance at first and all I had to do was turn it off and on again and everything was normal. Several times I would lock my car and go into work and a couple of hours later someone would say that my lights were turned on. As time went on it was increasingly harder to turn my alarm on as it would now take several on/off cycles to finally have my signals blink off. It got so frustrating that I just opened the back door and locked the front door that way.
Now, just a couple of weeks ago my left turn signal starts blinking rapidly indicating a burnt out bulb. I go to Canadian Tire and before I get in I check the back tailight to see what kind of bulb I need. I can't get the panel off because the over-heated bulb - remember it stayed on for a couple of hours at a time - melted or softened the plastic ring it went through. Later that night my tail-lights were acting strange. My right turn signal would go on when I applied the brake and my right turn signal would stop blinking. Next stop the VW dealer where I changed 5 bulbs. I did notice that there was some water on the back of the housing and was told that a short from the water could have been the reason for my lights to stay on. I installed smaller 10 watt bulbs for the turn signals and now it seemed to work perfectly. No issues with the signals staying on. Today, I bought a new tail-light and returned the 21 watt light bulbs to their places and had no problem till I got home from work. First time, no problem. Then I forgot something in the car. This time the lights would stay on. I couldn't shut them off. I even went to a parking lot away from the houses and still couldn't turn them off. I had to disconnect the battery because I didn't want to melt the new lense I just got. BTW, when the lights are on the signals and emergency flasher don't work. Has anyone had this problem before and what did you do to fix it?
Ryan