Shop Shots Volume 53 Insider Pictures of Automotive Service

Strange VW

Hi folks, welcome back to another volume of Shop Shots. If you are joining us for the first time today, let me tell you a little bit about what Shop Shots. Over the years I have seen some crazy things at the dealership. Everything from severe failures of DIY, water leaks that have totaled Volkswagens, and so many other strange things. This is a way for me to share those things with you. And let’s face it, me tell you about them is one thing, seeing them is another. So let’s get in to the shots.

Volkswagen Wiring problems This is a shot is the trunk of a VW Phaeton. The car has a million and one features, that means a bunch of wiring. VW really pulled out all the design stops on this car(they really should have left some in 😉 ) The trunk wiring harness is designed so you never see any wires. Unfortunately, the contraption they use fails from time to time. The repair is replacing the harness in the trunk lid. It is not a bad job, but there are a bunch of wires. Those wires just control the trunk. Think about how many the rest of the car has.

VW Waterleak issuesLooking at this, I wish I could have gotten a better pictures. You are looking at a wiring harness under the carpet of a Touareg. At some point the customer had a water leak. My guess would be the windshield, but I don’t know for sure. This customer was passing through and their car just shut off. The tech working on it did some heavy diagnosis to find that the drivers carpet was wet. Wet carpet is a BAD thing.

We pulled the carpet back and found the wiring harness had be opened and wires were repaired. We dug further and found a corroded splice of 4 main wires. It was a somewhat simple fix. We had to cut the wires back, and solder the connection. It reminded me of a post I did when I first started the blog. If you want to see what Touareg water damage really looks like, hit that link.

Strange VW To finish up today, I thought I would post this. You guys know, I am all for doing what you want to your car. This however, I do not understand. This is one of the weirdest steering wheel covers I have ever seen. I just don’t understand how someone could drive with their hands touching that. I was not the one working on the car. If I was, you bet I would have worn gloves.

Well, we have another week of Shop Shots in the books. Thank you all for tuning in, and welcome to all the new readers. If you want to see some of the older volumes of Shop Shots, just hit the tab at the top that says “Shop Shots” That will take you back through all of them. Well, all the ones I properly categorized.

10 replies
  1. Matt
    Matt says:

    Seen that T-reg wiring issue a few times up here in WI. I think it may have to due with customers tracking snow into the drivers floor in states that get a lot of snow.

    Reply
  2. Steven jones
    Steven jones says:

    Keeping up your car upto date for is quite necessary. This is because suddenly if you plan out for a weekend trip and you dont have your car prepared then you might l;and up in a big trouble.

    Reply
  3. CURT
    CURT says:

    Thanks for the reply I wanna fix caras for a living I’m in va there are a lot of shops around here as well as dealers I wanna work at a dealer I ain’t scared of flat rate but there are a lot of jobs and techs that stop cause of the pay they tell me I am wastn my time I won’t make money but I already been offered a job but at entry level what will I be doing are there more oppurtunities as a diesel tech I know it takes time to make money I am in it for a career any info will be helpful

    Reply
    • Charles
      Charles says:

      I can’t tell you what to do Curt. It sounds like you know what you want. If that is true, GO GET IT! It is true that flate-rate can be tough. Just take what other say with a grain of salt.

      Reply

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