Realizing that electrical problems can be difficult to diagnose, I thought maybe one of you may have had a similar experience and found the cause. I have a MKIV and used the Ron Francis harness, battery cut off and speed hut gauges. No mods. For three years all was good. When I turned on the ignition the gauges would reset and then I would turn the key to start. Recently, the gauges sometimes did not reset until the car started but all was working fine. Lately, I have randomly had the gauges not reset until the car was started and began to move. Sometimes all is normal. Assumption is a loose wire that I have not found. On Monday, my oil temp gauge was reading fine then dropped to zero. I looked again and it was back to normal then later, back to zero. Checked the wires between the sender and gauge and all looked good. Yesterday, I turned the key and no gauge response then turned to start and heard a click. All electric dead. This included the courtesy lights, clock and under hood lights that are separately wired and fused from the ignition. Then I noticed the under hood lights were very dimly lit. OK, must be a dead short somewhere. Checked every fuse and nothing blown.
I checked a few things, tried the phone a friend approach and decided to disconnect the battery and look further when I had more time. Before disconnecting the battery, I returned to the car and noticed the under hood lights were shining bright. Tried to start and it fired right up but still no gauges. Not trusting that the issue was a fluke I disconnected the battery and continued to look for an issue.
I do not trust the electrics now and do not want to risk any damage so I have left the battery disconnected. My first thought is maybe a bad ignition switch but that is just a guess. Has anyone had a similar issue and found a solution?