Was driving along normall then al of a sudden traction control light then abs light then airbag lights come on the dash then everything goes dim and i loose power allthough engine still ticking over. i managed to get to a safe place luckily 1 mile from home but the car wont drive or tickover now and the batt light is on the dash. if left for a while will start and drive then die. I checked the battery connection and the big black wire on the fusebox on the battery is melting the plastic around it although the metal connection is intact. it was freezing at the time and i had the fogs on but no other electrical stuff.

what am i looking at alternator? battery? what about the busted wire.

ok ive ran a search and it looks like the 110amp alternater wire melted thats caused the issue.

Is this fixable myself?

Where is the front tow loop and how do i get to it?

behind O/S lower grill me tinks.

cheers, luckily it hasnt come to towing, just been back to it with a mate and we took off the corroded end of the fuse and jsut reconnected it with the fuse removed. there was just enough charge in the battery to start but its on the driveway now at least. It was clearly a temp fix as the wire end is hot and started melting again. The same mate rekons he can change the cable himself, what type of cable and fuse am i needing?

If the box has melted you'll most likely need to replace it to stop this happening again. I got mine with fuses for around £50. Simple to do and after you fix it, make sure ALL the connections in the box are tight so that they don't move and become loose (Which is the cause for the arcing and melting)

Fuse is 110amp (IIRC)

Same thing happened on my 110tdi, put another fuse to 'get me home', found an almost identical box (5 terminals instead of 4) in a Golf 4 at a breakers for 10 quid, took out the redundant 5th fuse, and its been fine ever since, will be checking the tightness of the nuts regularly now, should have checked the box first as also changed the battery and the alternator too....

Cheers

Mark