VCDS monitoring of headlights and drivers door

[Tiap]

I've just splashed out on VCDS and must say I'm underwhelmed. I've spent ages trying to find the measuring blocks for my Greenline I but haven't found the two things I'm interested in.

 

1. The main beam is broken. I want to monitor the lights to see if it is a light stalk issue or something at the headlight end or maybe a wiring issue between the two. I can't find any lights other than 'blinkers' and reverse light switch in VCDS

 

2. The central locking doesn't lock the drivers door, the two front elecric windows don't work (manual rear) and the electric mirror adjust doesn't work. The window motor seems fine since the two front windows can be operated by rotating the key in the drivers door lock, VCDS shows that the door is open or closed and whether it is locked or not so I am assuming that the wiring loom at the door hinge is OK. I've viusually inspected it and can't see anything wrong with it. I've switched the fuses as mentioned on other posts and I've done the key operated window reset but that also produced no improvement. I can't find measuring blocks in VCDS for the window electrics, switches, regulators so yet again I can't use it to work out where the fault lies.

 

If you have some tips, they would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Mike

[KenONeill]

13 hours ago, Tiap said:

I've viusually inspected it

Hint - A visual inspection is no substitute for continuity testing.

[Tech1e]

How old is your Greenline?

[Tiap]

6 hours ago, KenONeill said:

Hint - A visual inspection is no substitute for continuity testing.

Fair point!

I'm not shy of continuity testing. However, I don't really want to get in and continuity test all of the wires leading from the door if VCDS could give me some indication of whether it is a wire, motor, comfort control or switch issue. It just seems unlikely to be a random break in a wire if all of the active things are broken but the passive things aren't. However, I could be barking up the wrong tree here so maybe it is a wire and VCDS is useless when it comes to door electrics (and headlights!) hence my original question about whether it is possible to test these two things using VCDS...

 

6 hours ago, Tech1e said:

How old is your Greenline?

It's a 2009

 

Thanks!

[Tech1e]

14 minutes ago, Tiap said:

 

It's a 2009

 

Thanks!

 

That will limit things not VCDS. Pre 2010 the Fabia II uses the same electrical system as Fabia 1 so most of the light functions are hard wired rather than control unit operated as it doesn’t have a combined BCM. 

[Breezy_Pete]

20 hours ago, Tiap said:

VCDS shows that the door is open or closed and whether it is locked or not so I am assuming that the wiring loom at the door hinge is OK

 

This doesn't rule out a broken wire going to the lock motor, I don't think.  You would still be able to manually lock the door, as you can. It will still show as open and closed OK, because that's the door open microswitch, and it will still show locked/not because those are microswitches within the lock unit, responding to the physical state of the lock (irrespective of whether that has been altered by direct mechanical means or motor driven).

 

I'll look up the colours and connector pin numbers of the motor wires in a sec.

 

[Breezy_Pete]

Pins 1 & 2 of the 28-way connector at  the A-pillar.

Not certain about wiring colours, cos I'm not sure if the looms are swapped over colour-wise for LHD and RHD cars, but they'll be either one or t'other of these:

Pin 1 blue/yellow, pin 2 purple/yellow, or

Pin 1 blue/red, pin 2 blue/purple.

 

If you can't see anything amiss with these wires, you could try measuring resistance between those two pins downstream, towards the motor, and see either a few Ohms (if intact) or an open circuit if not.

 

 

 

Edited 10 July, 2019 by Wino

[Tiap]

2 hours ago, Tech1e said:

most of the light functions are hard wired

Ah, OK. Thanks for letting me know. That explains why I can't see anything in VCDS. Will get in there with the voltmeter then.

 

1 hour ago, Wino said:

Pins 1 & 2 of the 28-way connector at  the A-pillar

Thanks Wino. That also gives me somethign to work with.

Do you know - if the window motor is duff, would that stop the central locking and mirror adjustment from working too?

[Tech1e]

6 minutes ago, Tiap said:

 

Thanks Wino. That also gives me somethign to work with.

Do you know - if the window motor is duff, would that stop the central locking and mirror adjustment from working too?

 

Very possible as it’s the door control unit. 

[Breezy_Pete]

Might affect mirror stuff, but don't think it could affect door lock. Not 100% sure though.

[Tiap]

OK, cheers. Will test it over the next couple of days and check in to let you know how it goes.

Thanks

[mrgf]

Central locking, mirrors and windows can all fail due to snapped wires in the door bellow. Check BOTH front doors and look real close as fractures give random results. Sometimes they will work, other times, they won't!