Help, golf dead :(

[ryushi]

I took my battery out to charge it up and when I put it back in again my car won't start

The wierd thing is there is power to the car, the lights and fan work but the speedo area - the odomerter ect is dead, there are no warning lights when I turn on the ignition.

When I try to start the car is starts and runs for about 1 second and then dies straight away.

To top it all off I've looked through the paparwork and found that the previous owner didn't give me the code for the stereo so I need to find a way to get that working too.

Help!
 

[GazB]

Maybe VAG COM will sort you out, this should be able to recode your radio too

[ryushi]

I hope so, it's going to get towed to VW tomorrow morning, I just hope it isn't too exspensive.

(thank god I opted for full breakdown cover from home too, I get a free tow to a garage if they can't fix it)

All this after I sold the car too, the woman is supposed to be picking it up Friday.....

[New Duncan]

Not intended as a tease or heavy criticism-  Important Reminder 


Please if you are reading this: You know not to disconnect the battery,  when you have some equipment, alarm systems, and retro fit upgrades on board - well 90% do here.

Normal stuff:

1) Charge up your old battery first - kept from the last change.
2) A piece of decent yet flexible cable four medium crockadile clips, then make your two lighter jump leads, just to maintain the 12 volt supply
3) Connect the crocks up with the correct polarity to the old spare, then
4) Disconnect the good battery for charging.

If you're careful and have nice flexible jump leads, you may then put the old battery back in the battery box, leaving off the lid for the time being.

Much lighter, and flexible leads, than the heavy Starting type are required, with smaller crock clips. Big clips get in the way, and fall off when disconnecting.

That is all.

[ryushi]

It's good advice except I don't have a spare battery, not sure many people do! I took it out to charge up overnight in my shed,  it's not normal for cars to break if the battery is removed!! There are no custom electrics on the car either, it's all standard VW.

VW have fixed it all now anyway, they plugged it into VAGCOM & cleared an error, but they could not say why it had done it, they also got my radio code for me that the previous owner had failed to supply me with - make sure you have it when buying a new car!

The person I sold it to is picking it up tomorrow, I'm sorry to say I'm glad to see the back of it, I've owned it for about 3 months and just too much has gone wrong with it and I won't be getting a golf again or recommending the MK4

My previous car was a 1.8T Passat that gave me 3 years of trouble free motoring, the MK4 golf just seems to have a lot of common faults that appear on most of the cars, oh well - thanks for all the help on the forum and good luck with your golfs people, I hope they are not all like mine!