Bad ground, bad ground, bad ground......................

While the IC bulbs are mostly LEDs, the other dash bulbs are
incandescent. Incandescent bulbs don't have polarity. If you apply the
voltage to the ground leg and there is a reverse path backwards to
ground, they can light up. Diodes won't do this, they only flow one
direction. A bad ground further down stream can cause the voltage to
backup in reverse flow. Like a plugged main sewer line can cause black
water in the bathtub whenever the toilet is flushed.

VW screwed up the grounds for the dash as I have pointed out many times.
Too many things share a single ground point. When the single point gets
bad, the blocked voltage can try to flow current the wrong way in the
other circuits.

Simply run an additional ground wire to the IC 14 pin connector. Be
careful, different models are different. Some have 2 brown wires to the
IC and later models have only 1. The ones with 2 brown wires are really
screwy since one of the browns is just a continuation back out of the
ground that came in on the other brown wire.

Peel back 1/4" of the insulation a few inches from the 14 pin connector
on the brown wire that is supposed to be the real ground. Wrap the
striped end of piece of wire around the now bare section and solder it
on. Then screw the other end to bare metal.

Sorry for the plumbing analogy but it is almost right.

Mark

Jim Felder wrote:
> While the turn signal light (proven to work in its circuit) doesn't
> blink, the parking brake light DOES blink slightly, in sync with the
> turn signal relay.
>
> ?
>
> Jim
>