Volkswagen: 98 Passat Electrical Problems, vw passat gls, auto electrician

Question
John,

I have a 98 VW Passat GLS, V6 2.8L auto w/ tiptronic ~90k mi.

I have been having several electrical problems, which may or may not be related:

-cannot connect to car computer
-console lights flicker, and are completely off sometimes
-radio is malfuncioning

When I went in for emmissions a couple months back, they could not connect to the ecu/ecm to get data.  I promptly went to autozone to pull any error codes, however they also could not make a connection.  I had both the battery and the alternator checked and they are working fine.  I also pulled every fuse under the dash and they are all good as well.

The dash lights flicker on and off.  When I first start up, they are usually on.  They then begin to flicker and soon go off completely.  This doesn't seem to correspond to vehicle speed or hitting bumps in the road.  Also, the head lights don't flicker, just the lights inside the car, including dash lights, console lights, and buttons for pwr locks, windows, etc..

The aftermarket stereo has been acting screwy.  It won't always take cds, and generally acts like there is some sort of power problem.  Now this head unit is about 3 yrs old, so it could just be dying on its own.  I tried removing its fuse, thinking maybe it was broken and possibly screwing up other electrical components.. no dice.

Overall, the car overall runs great.  Other than the electrical problems, I have no complaints.  I am hesitant to take it into a shop for repairs, simply because without an error code from the computer, they will be just poking around blindly at about $80/hr.  Any help or suggestions is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jason  

Answer
it is possible you may have an earth fault somewhere in the wiring, this sadly is a job for an auto electrician to look at. the dash panel, interior lights and radio all have seperate live feeds, however may share a common earthing point. depending on the wiring in your car, it may be an early "can bus" system which relies on nodes (specific earth points) to provide common earths while saving as much weight as possible. sorry i can't really offer any other insight. and sorry for the delay, just rebooted computer due to computer virus.