Occasional loss of power, speedo and few other electrics don’t work and battery dies

[Siya G]

Good morning,

On my way to pick up some vinyl this morning I noticed my radio would switch on and off, I never noticed anything else besides that on my way there.

On my way back, first the battery was dead and then the speedo wouldn’t work well the Kph side. I stopped to put petrol in and then the car started fine and everything seemed okay but I had To travel back to the petrol station, maybe 1k after leaving to get the right airtime. The car wouldn’t start when I wanted to leave the second time. About 10kms into my journey home I noticed the Speedo was acting up again, another k or so forward I noticed I wasn’t getting any power when accelerating and when I put the car into neutral it would cut out. I was going down a hill so I was able to kick start and then would get power back but had to do this a few time before I got home and it completely turned off.

I would like to know if anyone has any suggestions as to why it would do this and what I steps to take to figure of the problem.

It’s a 1998 Golf3 1.6.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[PöLö1.4...]

Sounds like a loose battery terminal or ground which is causing the issues

[panic-mechanic]

Or a dead alternator not charging the battery. The possibilities are endless. You have to start somewhere by for instance measuring voltage at the battery with car not running and running to see if the battery is ok and if the alternator is ok.
After that - yes fuses on terminal, earths - etc.