01 VW Bug Help

Ok so my little sister has a 01 Turbo Bug. It's yellow, black wheels, yellow lip, hids, tinted tails, etc.

Anyways, the problem began with her fuel door not opening when she pressed the button. We figured some sort of actuator or something went wrong, not a big deal.

Then her door locks stopped working, I replaced the fuse, blew, again, fuse blew again. Obviously it's some sort of short right? Today my neighbor and my sister were messing with the fuse again, and smoke started coming from the roof of her car, coming outside where the sun roof is.

Any idea on how to even begin finding this problem? Or what to do?

not a good place to ask for vw beetle advice.. considering its mostly honda amateur mechanics in here o_o... but either way, car problems are car problems!

you're gonna wanna start with checking all your grounds, check your battery, your fuse block for any shorts, frayed wires, the works, sounds like too much power without a proper ground

sorry for double post but.. i found it sad that there are 28 views, and i'm still theo nly oen to have commented... sorry op

There is a wire under the hood, I'm not exactly sure what it goes to because I didn't really check into it. It's not frayed or anything but there waas a lot of metal exposed. My sister electrical taped it, still having the problems though

Sorry to hear about her misfortune. While I agree that this is not a VW forum, elecrical issues can affect any car. Now I am no pro when it comes to VW, this is my first peice of advise. If she is still driving the car with this issue, tell her to pay close attention for things like smoke, both visually or by smell, and excessive heat. ex. if the center council gets abnormally hot. I say this because I pulled over by a cemetary one day and watched some guys Beetle burn to the ground. The owner claimed the center council in his got real hot and started smoking when all of a sudden POOF. Im not saying this will happen to you but know it is possible with electrical issues.

It sounds like a short to ground to me. Are you familiar with the usage of a multimeter? Wiring diagrams? I will try to help you with this but if you do not possess some skills you could do more damage than good. Look at what is and is not working. Obviously, components sharing a circuit that has a blown fuse wont work and replacing the fuse allows the short to reoccur and could damage the wiring. Let me know if you follow me so far. And good luck.

So far the locks, windows, gas door have been affected by the short. Any information anyone provides will be given to my friend who is extremely handy when it comes to electrical issues. (Owns a car audio place)

If smoke was coming out the top of the car I would gut the upper half of the interior. ie; pull out the head liner and inspect all the wires you can find up there.

it really sounds like a body harness is broken/rubbed through/melted because multiple things don't work and all stopped around the same time.

i would start with tracing the origin of the smoke near the moonroof. follow that wire down, and it should meet more of them...i'd wager that clump of wires will lead to the issue.

problem is...that harness probably goes up under the dash, somewhere, then goes to a fuse panel. sometimes, grabbing or twisting the bundle of wires will get the thing, like the locks, to work.

then check out the door wiring, starting on the driver's door. the door lock wiring comes out, of course, near the door hinge and boot. it would help big time to determine if there's [electrical] continuity inside the door or if the problem exists inside the car...or if the motion of the door caused the wires to pinch and fray inside the boot.

so...it may all be related and in the same spot due to the same problem causing it. it's issues like these why 99-05 vw products get a horrible reputation.

had a similar problem with my ex's bug, then the entire dash caught fire one day. I would highly advise that you take it to a VW shop and let them correct the problem before it gets any worse.

yup... take it to the shop. it may not be cheap, but neither is replacing a car thats burned to the ground. and worse case scenario would be your sister trapped in the car. you don't want that and we don't want that for you and your family.

electrical problems are not for amateurs. if you don't know how to fix it and fix it properly then you need to have a professional do it.