I have 95 Jetta GL 4 cylinder.

During the past month I have been having an intermittent problem with my
alarm system. It comes on and my car will not start.
I have to get out of the car turn off the alarm system by placing the key
in the door and turning it. Sometimes the car will start, immediately,
sometimes it takes two or three tries at starting it. If it does not start
after that, I have to get a jump which starts the car, but also causes the
alarm system to start beeping again. It a factory alarm system that came
with the car.

These are some of the solutions that I tried, but they did not work.

I took it to the VW dealer and they said the negative battery cable was
loose. I had a new cable installed, but am still experiencing the problem.

They put the car on the machine twice and this is all they came up
with...so far.

Any help would be apprecaited
I have to get the car jumped now.......

Toni....

In rec.autos.makers.vw.watercooled, T.Ione Wooley wrote:

At that time, I would turn on a headlight light or interior light,
and expect it to not light up. That is an excellent time to do some
troubleshooting with a voltmeter. Hook the negative of the meter to
chassis. Touch the positive lead of the to various spots. Each place
on the negative battery terminals should show near zero volts. Each
spot on the positive lines should show about 12 volts. Find the spot
where a ground wire shows 12 volts or a positive terminal shows zero
volts, and you will be well on the way to identifying the problem
spot.

You could use a test light similarly.


That would be the right kind of thing to suspect. If you won't do
the voltmeter thing, wiggle and tug your battery lines and nearby
wires. When the alarm comes on, remember what you wiggled last.


The problem is intermittent, so it is not there when they test,
unfortunately.

I am having a similar problem let me know what happens!

I have 94 Jetta. I finally got so fed up with the intermittent alarm
(interestingly the behavior sounds kinda similar to yours) that I
disabled it. I put a shunt on the hood switch harness connector (now
it thinks the hood is open and I guess the alarm doesn't arm), wrapped
it up in electrical tape to keep out the elements, and haven't had an
alarm since. I figure the alarm is getting an intermittent/incorrect
input from some sensor (door switch, etc) as I've heard the alarm
modules rarely go bad. Some day when I have the time I'll properly
dianose it.
Had this car 11 years, its been a good one except for the flakey
electrical system. I also have an airbag light thats been on since I
jump started the car a year ago. Codes on that says low voltage
input/hardware fault or such. I figure the alarm module is fried. Oh
well, it runs great in the winter.