Hydractive 'sport' Light

Tim,

At a quiet time of night, like now, if you open the door you should hear a distinctive 'click' (its at least as audible as say, the central locking motors, and louder than a relay) from under the car, followed by a continious buzzling / sizzling sound. The buzzing is much more audible on S2 for some reason, but you can still hear it on S1.

Failing that, sit in the driver's seat with the ignition on (but engine off), with the door open, and rapidly depress and release the accelerator. You should feel the valve close through the floor, then a second or two later the click of it re-opening again.

Just because the valve is opening doesn't mean its staying open, but one thing at a time. If its not opening at all, I'd expect either the diodes have gone, or there's a power supply problem (perhaps dodgy wiring) to the valve.

Regardless of the fact that VW ride quality is probably doing your head (and backside ) in, its not good for the strut tops to have the car driven long term with reduced damping (the extra capactity in the middle sphere obviously has an increased damping effect across all three spheres).

Ciarán

Thanks again Ciarán, and thanks for all the responses - and apologies for the thread hijack!

Yup - I am concerned about the struts getting pounded, not just my rear.

Okay - open the door - no click, nothing.

Sit in the car - turn on ignition - a loud buzz starts. Put head in footwell - hmm, not there, hang on - it's coming from the overhead console (note to self - should investigate).

Rapidly press and release accelerator (door still open) - nothing (another note to self - buy multimeter tomorrow).

This post has been edited by mouseflakes on February 19, 2009 01:34 am

Well you'll be relieved to know that the noise from the overhead console is just the climate control fan which draws in air to monitor the temperature. A lot of them get noisey, but if you take it out at some point and clean it out it should be a bit quieter.

So you have no power to the electrovalve. Suspecting diodes, but your buying a multimeter is a good first step. Regardless of this issue, you own a XM, it will get used at some point!

Ciarán

Thanks Ciarán,

Just to prepare myself....

If it is diodes - then, since my car is Hydractive 1 and too early for one of Roy's little kits, that would suggest it's not possible to do the fix on the ECU either, which suggests I would need a new electro-valve (as the diode would be gone in mine and can't be replaced remotely)?

Is that the case, or can it still be done on the ECU even if 'the kit won't fit'?

Sorry for the stream of questions - I'm only after answers off the top of the head, if folk know them.

Cheers,

Tim.

This post has been edited by mouseflakes on February 19, 2009 04:29 pm

No worries Tim, your beauty's suspension can be fixed, you'll have to buy a diode yourself and solder it. I'm sure the others will soon tell you precisely were.

cheers
G

MK1 diodes are in the ecu im sure, not in the Electrovalve itself (only 1), not really heard of that many mk1's going though, seems far more common in the 2's for some reason.........


D

Hi Ciarán,

Would this also apply to the Series 1 cars? At all times mine feels like I'm driving a Golf or similar - all very unappealing

Is it different in sports and auto mode?

Whats the pressure in your spheres? Any idea how old they are?

Maybe on christmas day it might be quiet enough to hear them around here, theres always someone driving something in the distance otherwise.

Thing is even if his spheres are shot, he should be getting the valve activating when the doors are opened at least, if not there's a definite electrical issue, that's not to say it doesn't have flat spheres as well mind...

Ciarán

I found the car runs the same with or without the suspension ECU in place. I thought I should first check to see if my single electrovalve is receiving anything.

When I opened up the ECU box this is what I found...



I traced the wires from the white domestic connector to find a tiny, broken after-market switch under the dashboard.

The yellow wire onto which the brown one has been spliced, was marked 'positive'. The other yellow wire that has been extended with blue and taken through the switch connector, was marked 'Solenoid'.

As the switch under the dash was broken, I just disconnected the brown wire and took the switch out of the circuit - the wire marked 'Solenoid' was returned to it's original route.

So - that out the way - I followed George's instructions here ...

http://club-xm.com/forum/index.php?showto...=20&#entry30585

... with the following results.

The yellow wire on the WHITE plug - which I'm only guessing corresponds to the black plug in Georges post - was showing 0.14 V (engine running as in the previous posts). Out of interest - the wire that had been marked 'Positive' on the GREEN plug was showing the same.

I'm guessing that's not right?

I checked the meter was working okay incidentally - 12 - 13v from the battery using the same earth point.

I assume that since something is getting through then there is power to the ECU?

Any help greatly appreciated! Thanks.

As I was working on the car, my 8 year old son came to sit in it (he loves it). As it was hot he wanted the windows open. When he went back indoors I closed the rear windows - and as the nearside one rose there was a horrible 'crack' and it went all crooked.

Long story short - the white plastic clip that locates the bottom of the window in the central runner had broken when the window jammed on a 'kink' in the rubber side runner. The top front runner had pulled out too - so I had a right old job to make it all secure and rain proof (it's parked on the street). It works now, but falls out the runner if opened more than half way. I'll need to find a replacement for the white plastic part - anyone?

I'll post in the wanted section too.

Thanks again,

This post has been edited by mouseflakes on March 01, 2009 11:06 pm

Tim,

That is the best automotive electrical repair i have ever seen 10/10 .........
If the clip for the window you are after is the same on the MK2 then yes i have one, but hopefully someone will know if they are different.

Good luck with it

D

Hi Tim,

Only just saw this.
My that was some DIY repair the previous owner did, never seen one quite like that!

Just to get an idea whats going on, I'm presumung this switch was added so the electrovalves could be switched on and off at will? Very odd.

/EDIT: Ignore me, you've already tried what I was going to suggest...

I can't think of any reason to do the above, but at least it explains a few things....

Re the window clip, yes a fairly common failure item, but at least its not the cables....

Seems like Dean should be able to sort you out with one, but if not just post back

Ciarán

This post has been edited by Ciaran on March 01, 2009 11:10 pm

Hi Tim, if as Ciaran notes the repair was made to switch on and off at will using a 12v supply, then in all likelyhood the valve solenoid will be fried.You need to be looking for approx 4 ohms resistance of the winding, if so then at least it's not burned out.

I'm wondering was the valve starting to suffer from the diode issue (causing it to intermittently cut out when they overheated). Perhaps the previous owner saw this as a fault with the ECU and not realising why the supply was intermittent, decided to wire in a direct power feed....

Nasty

Tim I would say the first step is to remove this frankenstien job and get the wiring back as it was originally, then begin your fault finding from there...

Ciarán

Thanks for the suggestions - yes, I took the switch out of the loop.

If I measure the voltage through the wire that was 'bodged' and marked 'Positive' - that's also showing 0.14 volts - so not a 12V feed?

I guess I need to trace an H1 ECU (according to Wiki the orga number suggests this - I see no 'H' marking on the unit) to test in place of this one.

In the mean time - I've found a huge hole in the rear subframe - see 'Available' section.

I have the inclination to weld it - but little time or space at the moment. I'll see how it goes after a good poke about at the weekend.

Hi Tim,

Yes I did notice your post in available
Besides the welding and the wiring issue its a cracking car though.

How long would it take to weld? and if you haven't the space, I wouldn't imagine a garage would charge tooooo much for this...

Ciarán