All electrics off while driving!

Nicky6

New Member
We were driving along today and all electrics went off. The wipers froze in the middle of the screen and the dials on the dash stuck at the revs and speed we were travelling, all lights off and indicators not working...only thing that stayed on was alpine radio, pulled over and sat with engine running and after a couple of minutes everything came on again and the dash did a full reset with both dial fingers going all the way to max and then back to reading normal.

All very bizarre. Has anyone ever had anything similar because in all my days I've never had anything like it
 
If that was the same as if you had turned the ignition key off I would suspect the fault in that location.

Are you sure you haven't got a big bunch of keys on your keyring and knocked them with your knee thus switching the van off?
 
Cheers rod_vw.
Well, no. The engine stayed running and I pulled in and sat with it running. The rev counter was paused at 3500 and speed paused at 50mph on the clock dials, all centre dash was blank all lights off and indicators off...but engine still running.
After a couple of minutes of just sitting there, everything came back on..
 
  • Wow
Reactions: mmi
That's very disturbing, makes you doubtful about driving it but you've got to reproduce the fault somehow. It's always worth getting it scanned if you can although I wouldn't be confident of anything being recorded.
There's a simple rule of fault finding of faults like this, you can't find a fault that you can't see or hear.

Do you know of any work or disturbance having happened anywhere on the vehicle recently? If so that is the first place to explore but do it carefully so as not to confuse the search for your fault.
 
The van hasn't had any recent work done, just serviced couple of months ago. My start point is the fact the the alpine screen stayed on and all the other electrics off. My phone stopped charging from the usb too from the Original factory 12v port.
I didn't turn the ignition off to stop the engine because we were in an unsafe place. I reversed into a lay by and just sat there running. I started to diagnose, got out checked underbonnet battery terminals but nothing obvious. Got back in, debated whether to turn off the ignition, which i didnt, and then everything just came back to life and we were able to drive safely home. I considered if the immobiliser had a timer on it and had dropped power .
The only thing I could think of like that is, the doors lock themselves if you don't get in after 30 secs or so.
I reckon all electrics were off for 2 -3 minutes. The gauges hanging when the power was cut was really strange to me, I think I said WTF about 5 times as I took it all in!
 
That's mad..

Not heard of that before.

Almost sounds like the dash clocks crashed and rebooted.

There may be a "no coms" fault logged on the van if you can scan the van?

Keep us posted with any updates.
 
I've come across this before on other vehicles.

On my olde Volvo V70 it was the CIM, the main control module that talks to and coordinates all the other modules an computers around the vehicle. I'm don't know what VW Group call their equivalent.

It was a fairly common problem due to water ingress. Some owners got away with cleaning the big connector on the edge of the board, but in needed a whole new unit.

The symptoms were identical to that which you describe. That may well not be the cause, but it's something to consider.

Best of luck.
 
I've come across this before on other vehicles.

On my olde Volvo V70 it was the CIM, the main control module that talks to and coordinates all the other modules an computers around the vehicle. I'm don't know what VW Group call their equivalent.

It was a fairly common problem due to water ingress. Some owners got away with cleaning the big connector on the edge of the board, but in needed a whole new unit.

The symptoms were identical to that which you describe. That may well not be the cause, but it's something to consider.

Best of luck.
VW call that module the 'Gateway" id#19

It's built into the BCM under the dash clocks.... It connects all the sub data busses together.
 
Yeh.

The engine has its own ECM.... Which is why it stayed running.id imagine.

Certainly seems like the clocks module froze?.... Then rebooted.... But the indicators are run from the main BCM...

So maybe the BCM locked up for a moment?
 
Sounds possible...
Thinking now that the indicators may have still worked physically but the dash didn't show it...maybe...
All headlamps were definitely out though including DRLs
 
Sounds like damage (water?) to a common module or connection. My old S-max would sit with the wipers going full speed and door locks doing stupid things even though the ignition was off and keys inside the house. Turned out it was an alarm module that was usefully positioned behind the inner passenger side wheel arch that was known to get soaked. This module was a connection for all sorts of other systems hence the totally random nature of the things going mad.
 
I'll step back from any speculation as it's all beyond my pay grade. However I am keen to hear the final outcome.

If by chance @Nicky6 you are west of the West Midlands I will happily scan it for you, I'm in Telford.
 
Strange incident! When you first reported it, the first thing Ii did was to look at the Met Weather forecast to look for lightning but the weather did not look that sort when I played back their mapping. However there where strikes over a period of time but I could not see where or exactly when. Most vehicle act as a faradic cage but some disturbance can still take place.

I know when a lightning strike hit the ground near to our remote property even though it did not hit the house it still cause damage. Wrote off the much of the hi-fi, tuner and amplifier and some other less expensive unimportant equipment. Scorched around the main fuse box, ancient as it is. Damaged a tree. I was out but around at the time with 2 Irish Wolf Hounds, they shot off in different directions. Rushed home, my wife had been blown off her feet, only light injuries due to the fall. The strike was so bight it could have blinded me it was like being in a film set, The noise was absolutely incredible. Not all strikes are that obvious, We have had a number of trees struck over the years not far from the property and heard nothing much only rumbling or just a crack. In a car one possibly might not even notice, if one was close but just passing by. The only other thing that I could imagine is loose battery terminals or something like that. Perhaps all a bit far off and the auto electricians on here might say highly speculative and improbable.
 
Cheers @rod_vw .
I'm in Cumbria but thanks all the same for the kind offer.
I'm gonna try and get it on the VCDS at my local this week hopefully and I'll post the result if any.
 
Strange incident! When you first reported it, the first thing Ii did was to look at the Met Weather forecast to look for lightning but the weather did not look that sort when I played back their mapping. However there where strikes over a period of time but I could not see where or exactly when. Most vehicle act as a faradic cage but some disturbance can still take place.

I know when a lightning strike hit the ground near to our remote property even though it did not hit the house it still cause damage. Wrote off the much of the hi-fi, tuner and amplifier and some other less expensive unimportant equipment. Scorched around the main fuse box, ancient as it is. Damaged a tree. I was out but around at the time with 2 Irish Wolf Hounds, they shot off in different directions. Rushed home, my wife had been blown off her feet, only light injuries due to the fall. The strike was so bight it could have blinded me it was like being in a film set, The noise was absolutely incredible. Not all strikes are that obvious, We have had a number of trees struck over the years not far from the property and heard nothing much only rumbling or just a crack. In a car one possibly might not even notice, if one was close but just passing by. The only other thing that I could imagine is loose battery terminals or something like that. Perhaps all a bit far off and the auto electricians on here might say
All quite reasonable due to the bizarre nature of it but the weather was strangely dry!
 
All quite reasonable due to the bizarre nature of it but the weather was strangely dry!
Some times at night even during clear weather one can see discharges in the distance but no clouds even. they are probably just all airborne perhaps. Their where clouds over the lake district the day you posted though. Any way it all probably off on a tangent.
 
So, I have had it plugged in today.
As suspected no fault codes whatsoever for the issue experienced at the weekend.

What I do have is fault codes for a couple of weeks ago 18/11, all the same event.

1. No comms with cluster (ipc module) U0155

2. No comms with BCM U0140

3. No comms with diagnostic gateway U0146.

The van ecm was logged as today's correct date so this must be a separate incident but with no apparent symptoms.

I guess I start checking all connections, fuses, any corrosion, etc.
 
Back
Top