OK so we bought this VW Golf MKIII 1997 to a guy that repaired it after a small accident. The car worked well, at least for the engine part, for around 6 months. We eventually had to change the battery. Unfortunately, after the new battery was plugged in, the alarm started going off.
I searched through the internet for 3 days, and tried pretty much everything I could, including what I found here on this forum. Mainly, it was about disconnecting the alarm box (which on the mk3 of 97 should be a black box). Problem was: we did not have that box. The guy who repaired the car before we bought it, probably did the trick himself (see picture no. 1). Well his trick was working as far as we had to unplug the battery.
I managed to unplug the alarm horn, however, the engine will NOT start. Now everything works fine in the car, including the central lock, the lights, etc... I have tried the Alarm bypass by connecting the RED wire to the RED/BLACK wire. Did not work. I have checked the fuses, they're all good. Sadly I can't try to unlock the door with the key, both the passenger and driver door's locks fell off... There is also the orange "Check" light (with an engine sign on it) glowing, if that matters.
So here, I am really thinking this guy's set-up really is the problem. And we are paralysed without that car working. It's becoming a big issue for all of us here. We would really appreciate any kind of help. If you need any more picture, or have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them asap.
Here's the pictures. http:// img38. imageshack .us/g/img0497ku.jpg/
Little update: To go around the problem of fallen lock, I unplugged the wires of the DS door inside the car, and connected the RED/WHITE to the GREY wire which locked the car, then connected the R/W to the GREEN wire, which unlocked the car and allowed me to start the engine. Now the problem is once you turn off the engine, you have to do this trick again and connect the R/W to the GREY then R/W to the GREEN, sadly enough. I think that what the guy's done with the wires can't be undone, large portions of the wires/plugs have gone missing. Now I can plug two wires to that system, and lock/unlock the car everytime to start the engine, but that's just going around another problem: the alarm is still on.