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What Has Happened
Sep. 28th, 2009 11:51 pmLast week, Jeeves had a rather spontaneous electrical fire in his dash -- more accurately, the lower ignition (not the starter) shorted and burst into flame.
In a fashion that is becoming far too typical of my family, my dad ripped the offending (and on fire) wires out of the steering column, thus saving Jeeves from an untimely death. However, without an ignition, Jeeves had to be towed to a repair shop and had undergone some fairly massive exploratory surgery, to ensure that nothing else was damaged.
On the one hand, this is bad. Volkswagens do have electrical issues, especially down South, where all of the rubber rots off of the wiring. But we'd hoped Jeeves had avoided most of the rot issues by being garaged for most of his life. Not so, it seems. This may mean that Jeeves will need a total wiring replacement at some point down the line. Expensive.
On the other hand -- I am most pleased by one bit of information that my mom gave me. Apparently, my dad had two choices in replacing the ignition: A) Pay $200 for a replacement VW lower ignition, or B) pay $100 to replace the entire ignition set with aftermarket, non-VW parts. My dad chose the VW bits. He didn't feel right putting non-Dub parts in the car.
I love my dad.
And, don't worry -- our mechie has installed a relay in the ignition that will blow in the event of a future surge, hopefully saving us the trouble of another fire.
In a fashion that is becoming far too typical of my family, my dad ripped the offending (and on fire) wires out of the steering column, thus saving Jeeves from an untimely death. However, without an ignition, Jeeves had to be towed to a repair shop and had undergone some fairly massive exploratory surgery, to ensure that nothing else was damaged.
On the one hand, this is bad. Volkswagens do have electrical issues, especially down South, where all of the rubber rots off of the wiring. But we'd hoped Jeeves had avoided most of the rot issues by being garaged for most of his life. Not so, it seems. This may mean that Jeeves will need a total wiring replacement at some point down the line. Expensive.
On the other hand -- I am most pleased by one bit of information that my mom gave me. Apparently, my dad had two choices in replacing the ignition: A) Pay $200 for a replacement VW lower ignition, or B) pay $100 to replace the entire ignition set with aftermarket, non-VW parts. My dad chose the VW bits. He didn't feel right putting non-Dub parts in the car.
I love my dad.
And, don't worry -- our mechie has installed a relay in the ignition that will blow in the event of a future surge, hopefully saving us the trouble of another fire.
