Steering wheel lights flickering

[Mark Vardy]

Hi,first off thanks you for providing such a good forum,it feels friendly and open to all,unlike some others 
I bought a 2004 1.9 TDI GHIA,I bought it from a garage and it's been back to have some warranty work done on it,which they haven't done,I'm trying to find out what might be coursing the minor ones in the hope I can resolve them myself,but send it back in to have the major ones done that I feel they should honour,sorry about the long essay 😔
The first one is the lights on the steering wheel will flicker on and off randomly,no big deal but very distracting at night,and the left indicator on the dash will sometimes look like it's dying instead of flashing on and off like the right,is this a common fault traced back to a connector I can look for,
Kind regards,
Mark

[johnnyroper]

As with most electrical gremlins on these cars first place to check is door and tailgate harness for damage where it comes from car.

[Mirez]

If its JUST the steering wheel lights and not the rest of the interior lights then its the clock spring / squib on the way out. They need to replace it as it will only fail from there and of course the airbag wiring runs through the same unit so again its only a matter of time before the airbag light comes on.

[gregers]

 

how long have you had the car?
http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=2nd+hand+car

dunno if it still applys,but if its under the 28 day rule?.then the warranty does not come into play.the dealer HAS to carry out the repairs.iirc this is to deter dodgie dealers relying on selling cars not fit for purpose.read up before even doing the basic repairs JUST in case it may do more harm then good.

[Mark Vardy]

Thanks for the replays,
I had it about 2 months,I rang the dealer but they had no curtsy cars,we do about 500 miles a week and it was 1 month or 1000 mile warranty,I rang them to get it booked in well with in this time but the curtsy car wasn't available until I'd done over the 1000 but they said this wasn't a problem as it was out of my hands,it turned out I had to force the drop off as the fuse box melted itself and so needed dropping off by the RAC,I made a list of the other  problems,I picked the car up on this week Thursday after them having it 3 weeks,thinking this was a good thing as it was quite a list,I picked the car up late and the garage was just closing,he said we have done 90% of the jobs,it's had a new clutch,and other bits,I say ok brilliant I'll contact you about finishing the other jobs,gets it back home and still the strong smell of diesel,plus now what looks like an oil leak,I think he also meant 90% wasn't done,I rang them this morning to sort out taking it back,he said it will have to be next week so I said no problem.i thought as they have made a mess so far,I'd nip out now it's day light and see what job they had done of the know fuse box issue,I was gob smoked when I saw this,ran the garage and said I'm on my way now,so as we speaker it's back at the garage,I love the car as it's sooooooo practical and as it's the 150bhp it keeps me happy lol so will have to see what happens

[insanitybeard]

Melted battery junction boxes and particularly those top two cables (alternator charging cable and cabin central junction box supply cable IIRC) are a common problem on these vehicles I'm afraid, common enough for there to be a writeup in the reference library about it as well as numerous threads such as this one and this one, among others. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the reason you're noticing the lights on the steering wheel flickering.

[Mark Vardy]

Thanks for the links,I read up on it when it happend and that's why I was so shocked the garage didn't even bother to fix it properly and it's now costing them more to fix,he did say well we can just cut the cable back a bit and that should sort it,I said well why not do it properly,are you not better off fixing so I don't come back or hope it's fixed and I do comeback.

[johnnyroper]

It's just as easy to get a metre or heavy duty cable and a couple of lugs to repair permanently I say. Did mine took me about an hour.