Passat 98 electrics cut out

[Mark Lewis]

Can anyone help? Very occasionally as I'm driving my 98 Passat 1.8 SE some of the electrics cut out (indicators, fan, stop lights, main beam); turning the engine & ignition off and back on brings the electrics back. It may be a day or more between cut outs.

[boschmann]

Try jiggling the key when it happens, not necessarily turning it off or too hard towards start to see if it might be the electrical part of the switch. It could also be the load reduction relay, but I'm unsure if your UK car has one or not.

[Mark Lewis]

Many thanks for the suggestions!! I'll try out the ignition thing and check for the load reduction device. Thanks again!!

[Mark Lewis]

Thanks Boschmann!! Wiggling the key helps straight away & brings the electrics back on. I'll try investigating the ignition. Thanks again! You've saved me from otherwise looking for a needle in a haystack.

[boschmann]

It's the electrical part of the switch that goes bad, a bit of a pain to get to. Some of the cars had extended warranty on the switch, not sure if yours falls under this.

[bgagnon]

I had this same issue with my 99 Passat. As it turns out, an upgrade of my driving lights to a higher wattage, caused the wiring and, the multi-function switch itself to... um... MELT!!!

This explains the intermittent (at first anyway) aspect of this issue, for me at least. The fix was a replaced switch and some re-wiring. Moral of the story, "Better to drive with poor lighting then, not drive at all..."

I guess an alternative would be to upgrade wiring as well...

[bnicola]

I had a similar problem (plus far too may others) with my 97 Passat Sport 20V T. My local garage replaced the ignition switch which has cured the problem, Unfortunately the fix seems to have created another problem. The display now permanently shows the message 'FAIL'. Car seems to work fine. I was advised that this is a dashboard fault and it would be expensive to fix. Does anybody have any ideas about this?