Clean your electricals! Golf 2.5l Build date? 3/2012. Already had rust and corrosion on all factory grounds!

[gdoggmoney]

So I have been a VW owner since I was.... 16. Consistency is the key here, as they all have crap electronics. Well my banks brand new 3000 mile 2012 2.5l Golf started doing the usual. You know, very light misfires at idle. Slight idle drop when the radiator fans would come on, slight light dimming.... Uh oh. here comes the VAG gremlins!

So instead of take the car to the dealer to hear "that is normal, your crazy guy, pound large granules of sand where the sun don't shine" I took apart the car a bunch and used some ox-gard. I dremel'd off the ground lugs which were rusty, half covered in primer as well.

Same with the power distribution bus at the engine ba fuse block. *EVERY* connection had signs of running hot and damage starting. EVERY ONE. Some I was unable to fit a dremel, so some folder up sand paper it was. After they were clean and bright/metallic, they were slathered in ox-gard.

Well, I dropped .6ohm resistance especially where the ignition coils ground to a PAINTED bracket that bolts to the valve cover... yes it's fully painted...... Really?

I lost a fair bit of resistance at the power distribution B terminal from the alternator as well.

The car sounds different, the intake growl on a 100% stock motor is noticable, and louder, it pulls harder and runs smoother.

AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!

Pic for evidence -- this is my ground lug below the battery. Again build date 3/2012 3000 miles, so the car is LITERALLY 5 months OLD.




Post cleaning, the ground and bracket that were painted completely.



Here is the car, before I made the dealer remove the pin stripe. I bought it June 2xth. Built 3/2012.

[Shuino]

Pictures are not showing up for me.

[gdoggmoney]

Pictures are not showing up for me.

Everything I found, including the ground under the raintray which I assume is for the ECU was like this or a little bit worse. My battery already had fur growing on the ground post. I just went to town on them all with a dremel and tiny wire wheel. This is the only picture I took. Not much to see other than a layer of corrosion and etc.

The good one is what I think is the coil ground on the cylinder head. It goes to a completely painted bracket that bolts into the timing chain cover. Copper to that. The copper was black already when I took it apart, not even taking into account whatever they spray on the bracket. Even if it was some sort of conductive primer it still was a fair bit of resistance.

I'm used to seeing this on 10-12 year old cars.... not a 5 month old car.

[Squirrel Nuts]

[dbizzle22]

Nice. My 250 mile old car is about to be returned after 5 days at a dealer for strange issues that killed a few electrical modules. They believe its a ground issue so this all makes sense.

Did you just do this cleanup? Is it still running as well? All those gremlins like rough idle etc you had before are all gone?

[gdoggmoney]

Nice. My 250 mile old car is about to be returned after 5 days at a dealer for strange issues that killed a few electrical modules. They believe its a ground issue so this all makes sense.

Did you just do this cleanup? Is it still running as well? All those gremlins like rough idle etc you had before are all gone?

Yep. All gone. The factory electricals still seem a little inadequate, but having stuff like that will make them that much worse.

I have 14.35 or so volts everywhere at anytime, and 14.1 with the lights on now. Every once in a while my windows would stop going up/down with 1 touch. That has stopped also. It is not really like a power gain, just more how the engine should run.

Even after the dealer does their work, i'd check it all over myself. I spent an honest 4 hours doing this right on and off slow. Taking things apart and working a rotary tool in places without gouging paint off and etc is tedious.

When you are done, it should be almost mirror shining. Same with any connectors, some of the coated ones will just take a brushed appearance but mine had corrosion caked in already.

Also, can you get any other ground point locations out of them? I know there are probably multiple in the interior.

[PaulGiz]

Crap!! Your car is a twin to mine. Same build date, mileage and everything.

I believe I'll crawl around checking my grounds this weekend. I'm not having any issues, but it can't hurt to look.

P.

[gdoggmoney]

Update.... Mileage is up noticably. I was averaging 42 highway with my tires inflated to 46psi all over, and driving it with minimal throttle input and keeping it under 3500 shifting. Average was 33mpg mixed city/highway. That was on the weighted MFA mileage readout as well -- not the live readout.

Gas gauge is moving noticably less.

I poured about 4 gallons of E85 into the tank I had sitting around, and the car adapted out fine. I'm averaging 28mpg mixed with this. Car runs without a hiccup or stutter on a 40% ethanol mix. Isn't modern engine management grand?

[Squirrel Nuts]

OP, where do you live? Thinking maybe the area you live (climate, weather, etc.) may make a difference as well.

[gdoggmoney]

OP, where do you live? Thinking maybe the area you live (climate, weather, etc.) may make a difference as well.

Humid, dirty air always raining MD. This really seems like it happened while the car was being built. They just slap the wiring in later, bolt it down to this with no sort of paste to prevent corrosion between dissimilar metals, and this is what you get.

[Aonarch]

[Squirrel Nuts]

Humid, dirty air always raining MD. This really seems like it happened while the car was being built. They just slap the wiring in later, bolt it down to this with no sort of paste to prevent corrosion between dissimilar metals, and this is what you get.

Yeah. I was going to say, I live in Miami and I haven't experienced any of this yet. Might of been a production problem.

[gdoggmoney]

Yeah. I was going to say, I live in Miami and I haven't experienced any of this yet. Might of been a production problem.

You may have it and not realize it, or it's just enough to not cause noticable problems yet. I can show you pictures of what happens when this is let go for years. I'm putting battery box/bulkhead sheetmetal in my 98 B5. The rust started at the factory ground lug, it became so bad that it started dissolving the metal at the lug, which caused the battery to vent acid and ruin it. The car also has noticable marks on all the electricals from running hot with a lot of resistance. Over time, this will wreck a car.

The ECU ground in the raintray on the MKVI was the worst of them. It was basically brown and the actual ground lug was powdery white. More than likely it was put together that way, the shells probably were painted (it appears they leave the lugs bare during this time or covered probably in something like that, there was some primer overspray too mixed with rust/corrosion). At least most of the ends have heat shrink over them.