niche

Is this the Christmas Tree Effect? Very unpredictable and in other threads I haven't noticed that annoying beeping. What's the best fix? Plug wires, plugs and ignition coils?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lySu4...ature=youtu.be

Marc Shaw

Got that when my alternator failed.

Marc

Romanoaf

Just corrected Xmas tree on mine, for me it was ignition wires. But I changed everything, wires, coils, distrib caps and rotors. To do a quick check of wires, park in a dark place, and spray a mist of water over the spark plug wire plugs on the distributor, if you see arcing, that's most likely your issue.

niche

Thanks for the tip!

D.C.

That is exactly what happened to me. Scared the heck out of me.
The only way I could get it to stop on the road was to turn the car off, and restart.

In my case it was plug wires, and the coils.

Cosmos99

I replaced wires, plugs, caps, rotor and coils when I had the problem. My car only had 47k on it but everything was 19 years old and needed it. 2.5 years and 15k miles later I haven't had a problem.

newsboy

I would replace the coils first. That is what fixed my "Christmas tree".

911Jetta

+2

That alarm is loud! I even put tape over the little speaker to quite it down until I had my coils replaced.

pmalenfa

It is Surprising when you get this for the first time hey? :-). Like in your video, it normally start to happen in the evening or on a rainy day... Humidity raising...

I had exactly this on my 964. Solved by changing my HT coils ( cheap and easy DIY ) and changing my plugs ( they were overdues ). My wires were good ( tested ) but this can be related as well. All in all, this is often related to ignition (coils, plugs, wires, maybe distributors). Electricity don't like humidity and water.

Good luck, cause this is annoying... :-(

Pierre

Ed Hughes

Hey Javier! I'm reading up on this, and caught your thread. The wires wouldn't be too bad-just the tedium of removing/moving stuff, for access. Not a bad as a 993. Coils seem to often be the culprit-and probably could use changing on your car-so we could start there, and see what happens. If we need to go further from there, we can.

niche

Thanks guys for the tips. I sprayed a mist of water, per suggestion, but didn't see any arching.

Ed, thanks for looking into it! Would be a cool first DIY for me. The wires don't look bad to me, but then again, I don't know what the heck I'm looking at. ;-)

Michael D'Silva

Hi
So, how did you fix it? Were you able to determine the main component that failed.. I now have this lovely issue too!

Goughary

Change your coils.

niche

I was going to change the coils as that's the most likely fix. Ended up selling the car before fixing it.

Michael D'Silva

I borrowed a coil from a friends working car, and now my car drives great.
So I will buy a pair of new coils to fix my problem.