electrical gremlins, where to look??

[kevro2000]

ok, the car doesnt shut off when i turn off the ignition, the dash lights work when the ignition is off, but turn it on and the headlights go onbut the dash lights go out, temp guage and fuel guage are interemittant, oil pressure light rings and flashes sometimes, (pressure is fine) temp light flashes sometimes, (also fine) replaced the ignition tumbler and no change in the car, any help, im guessing therre is a relay that goes to shit, i can turn off the tach by siomply adjusting the brightness control know for the cluster lights, all wiring is intact under dash, no obvious flaws??? anyone???????
ps. it is a 92 passat, 2.0 16 valve, 5 speed tranny ,all stock



oh yeah, on a side note, the passenger door wil not unlock, it worked just fine till i locked it, just feels like its hitting something internally, cant unlock with the pull or the key?

[boschmann]

Did you replace the electrical part of the ignition switch?

[kevro2000]

yes, changed the electrical part

[kevro2000]

boschman? help

[boschmann]

The part about not shuting off when the key is turned off points to ignition switch. Is the cooling fan wired to run all the time? The dash ligths sound like a possible headlight switch problem. The warning lights could be a bad connector at the back of the instrument cluster, a fairly common problem. Are you saying the ligth behind the tach t works with the dimmer or that the tach itself quits with the dimmer?

[kevro2000]

ok, so i pulled the instrument cluster and it is clearly a big part of the problem(s) immediatly lights started going on and off on the cluster as i was removing, tonight i am doing my best to clean out the connecter, any other ideas would be appreciated on the connection, on the not turning off the ignition switch did not have any affect on the way this is happening, swapped it and everything works exactly the same, car does not die when turned off still. thanks for the heads up on the connection, now i wil at least know if that oil pressure light is real or not

[boschmann]

I have not found a good repair for the connector, usually it will only work when put under pressure in a certain direction. The best solution I've seen was inserting a small screw between the harness plug and speedo housing to keep pressure on the connector. It's not a real good fix, but it works.