MY05 WRX Wagon, 100% BONE STOCK. No stereo crap, no aftermarket gauges, car is exactly as it was when it left production.

4 days ago I blew a door lock fuse. Swapped in a new one, things seemed fine. Yesterday I blew it again, which leads to believe there is something else wrong. Planned on bringing the car to the stealership today to have it looked at.

Got up this morning, started the car, and now I have NO GAUGE LIGHTS! Had to drive to work with my Dome light on just so I could see my speedo/tach. Random things like the A/C ON indicator, fog light on indicator, etc work, but the main stuff is down (Speedo/Tach/Fuel/Temp, Rest of the HVAC, etc..).

Exterior lights are still functioning properly

Any ideas? Anything I can do before bringing it into service?

^You don't need no stinking guages! Just wanted to say that, can't help you though with the electrical, I hate that crap!

Just got off the phone with the Service Department. Can't get the car in there until Tuesday...

Any and all ideas on things I could check in the meantime would be GREATLY appreciated

You have a dead short somewhere obviously, wouldn't be blowing fuses otherwise. It might be the cluster itself that has failed, or a wire somewhere behind it rubbed through. Nothing really easy to check by yourself unfortunately.

Is it possible that the gauge lighting runs on the same fuse as the power door locks?

Last time I drove my car (3:30pm yesterday) I wouldnt have known whether or not the gauges worked, because it was light outside and I didn't need to use them.

Did you disable your DRL's recently or did this just start happening out of the blue? Its possible that you pulled the wrong DRL unit behind the glove box... I have heard if that one of the other plugs has to do with all interior electrical and will turn off everything like it seems you're dealing with.

But if its stock like you said, its probably a cluster failure as rkramer noted... but I don't think they're on the same fuse though I do believe they're on the same circuit/plug, or at least close in proximity so if one frys it may set the other ones off.

I'd say dealership run. If you want to diagnose yourself though, check for other fried fuses and follow a wiring diagram? Prob too much trouble... good luck let us know how it turns out.

or a rodent may have got in somewhere and ate something

I had a similar issue when my POS battery terminal came loose and must have arced a bit and blew a fuse like that

I've heard of rodents chewing... but I am missing the VW reference....

I've heard of rodents chewing... but I am missing the VW reference....

VW lately has had some electrical issues. Just like the reason the British like warm beer. Lucas refrigerators. :D

HAHA^ Well done. And yes, that was the "joke." I owned a 99 VR6 Jetta for a while and the electrical system was absurd.


Anyway, I have confirmed that the gauge lights do in fact run on the same fuse as the door locks. I popped in a new 15A from the gas station, tapped the door lock and it instantly popped the fuse.

Went and got a handful of 15A's from NAPA, put a new one in, did NOT touch the lock button, and sure enough the gauge lights lit right up. I can turn those on and off, and there is no affect on the fuse.


So, its been narrowed down to a short in the locking system somewhere. Any ideas where to start looking?

PIA. Where the wires pass through the door to the body. We wiggle them every time we open a door. If a switched hot lead has grounded to the chassy...

Do you have aftermarket speakers and extra wires?

No idea.

PIA. Where the wires pass through the door to the body. We wiggle them every time we open a door. If a switched hot lead has grounded to the chassy...

Do you have aftermarket speakers and extra wires?

Negative, there is not one aftermarket part on this car (other than optional Suby stuff like roof racks and what not..)

I will check that area in the door. Sorry for the newness, but what is PIA? (pain in the ass? if so, TRUE STORY!)

I will update when I've checked that area.


Thank you guys for all the help thus far.

PIA is before the internet and text messages, but you got it. More like a pain in the back/neck laying on your back in the foot well chasing wires.

No idea.

dont do this

a moderator will reset your post count back to 0 for you

- check the switch, with winter here, you may have dropped a chunk of ice on the switch and it's shorted out after it melted. should be able to take swith out and clean it up, if this is the case.

- does the fuse blow if you hit the auto door locks on your remote? if so then the solenoid that operates your lock is most likly shorting out, prolly the melted ice in your door schnerio.

- also check the wiring harrness while your inside your door, you may have had something pierce the harness and it shorts out when you hit the switch with a closed door or something.

good luck bro.

does your seatbelt chime work? you know the annoying one that doesnt shutup ?

Thanks for the suggestions man. I'll look into all of this when I get home, and update the thread once I've done so.

I do drive with my window down a lot. When it rains/snows water comes in and drips on the buttons sometimes. I'll start there and work my way through the door.

Thanks Drubber

does your seatbelt chime work? you know the annoying one that doesnt shutup ?

I have a light that tells me when I'm not buckled up. But I have never heard it chime in my car, no sound at all, even before all of this stuff started going on.

I do know the chime you're referring to. My wife drives an 07 2.5i, and it drives her nuts :lol:. Not that she doesn't wear her belt when driving, but when waiting for it to warm up, even without her in the car, the damn thing goes off like crazy

I have a light that tells me when I'm not buckled up. But I have never heard it chime in my car, no sound at all, even before all of this stuff started going on.

I do know the chime you're referring to. My wife drives an 07 2.5i, and it drives her nuts :lol:. Not that she doesn't wear her belt when driving, but when waiting for it to warm up, even without her in the car, the damn thing goes off like crazy

Buckle and unbuckle 20 times and viola, adios!! Doubt it? Go ahead and try! :devil:

And good luck locating the short, keep us posted on how it turns out!

When you find the "Integrated Module" under the dash could you take picture of it and post it?

Also see if you can take it apart.

Alright, sorry for the delay on updating this thread.

I took a few things apart to examine everything, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary, damaged, etc.. So, I took the car into the service department yesterday.

The tech ended up finding a pinched wire near the bulkhead in the door, that had corroded over time and finally gave way. Tech repaired the wire, popped in a new fuse, and things have been smooth sailing from there.

I'll spare you the long boring details, just know that I am not happy with my local Service Department right now. Heres a brief price breakdown..

$3 for a wire fix
$0.32 for a new fuse
$180 in Diagnostics.....GREAT!

damn those diagnostic costs :mad:
glad you got it fixed man, but you must be kicking yourself for not finding that one stupid little wire :lol: oh well, happens to all of us though

yeah no kidding... It would have taken hours upon hours of inspecting for me to find it. Sucks I had to cough up the dough but, whatya gonna do?

Well, the fuse blew again. Now I have no way to open my god damn hatch to load all of our Christmas stuff up before the long drive home. I tried popping another fuse in and hitting the unlock in hopes that I could unlock the hatch before it blew again. It unlocked all the doors, except the god damn hatch.


Is there anyway to open the hatch from the inside?

cpl things...

1/ sounds like there were more then 1 wire messed up :P atleast you can prolly get this one fixed for free.

2/ I was right! Wooty-woot-woots! :P


oh and you might be able to pull the door card off the hatch and pull the cable with pliers but i really doubt you can get to it while the door is closed. i know the sedan's have a emergency lever in the trunk, dunno about wagons though, check the manual if you haven't already