Oh dear...

[bensspares]

my two penny's worth is its an alt fault,my moneys on the bushes.

ben

[wasted]

Would that result in a car that runs fine for two weeks after being jumped and then fail? I suppose it could result in a limited charge?

[bensspares]

if bushes on wayout could be making good circuit breifly.iv had trouble like this before and turned out to be alt.

ben

[wasted]

Ok. I guess the best thing to confirm that would be to charge the battery up, get the car started, and pop a multimeter across the alternator.

Just one thing - if it is the alternator, wouldn't you expect the ignition light to glow when it's not working properly?

[bensspares]

yes you would but not always the case.the only other thing is to check the main wire from alt to starter then starter to battery as power can be lost here,

ben

[ianaudia4]

I had a case of this with the Scala, I ended up getting 3 batteries in the end (under warrenty!) until the problem was solved but I also rewired the stereo. I have had no problems since.

[wasted]

Strangely enough I'm strongly suspecting the stereo. I did a poor job of wiring it in really - I might remove it entirely and try things again.

Oddly enough, I think I bought my current stereo off you! Did you rewire or replace it?

[ianaudia4]

If I remember rightly you did. I never rewired it, it was just fitted correctly, I upgraded it to a bluetooth one.

[wasted]

Ok, no worries ;) I'll probably remove it and redo it at some point.

[Nate]

you checked the gearbox earth?

seing as we've had a few charging fault queries recently, i'll do an alternator diagnostic thread with pictures if/when it stops raining

[wasted]

That'd be ace. I will check that strap... I think I'll check all of them actually, as long as it dries up a bit outside. It does seem likely to be a loose earth strap and/or lead somewhere.

[wasted]

Ok, just to confirm (since the Haynes Book of Lies mentions the earth leads several times but doesn't actually have a section on them), I'm looking for the engine earth strap and the battery to body earth strap. Can someone tell me where to look for these? Presumably it's just a bolt to undo, clean and replace?

[wasted]

Pop quiz, ladies and gents:



Twas hanging off the back of the right rear corner of the rocker cover. That'll be the engine to coil earth strap then. Looks like it's been detached for quite some time though - the broken end is completely covered in gunk. One thing that has occurred to me is that there's a rather bodged-together 'immobiliser' on the coil that was put in by the previous owner, so I reckon it was probably snipped back then.

Is this likely to cause the symptoms I've described? By the way, the battery earth appears to be present and intact, although it is starting to fray where it passes through the bottom of the engine bay. I checked various other leads and they all seem to be fine, although the little blue wire on the alternator is difficult to trace since it goes off into a sheath along with the big red wire from the same location. I'm off out again in a minute to actually remove the alternator and give it a proper look.

[wasted]

Well I think I've sorted it...

After rewiring the stereo, I noticed that it had no power - the fuse for it (and the interior lights / clocks) had blown. The last time this happened, there was a really strong live current going across the fuse that blew every fuse that was put into it. The same was happening today, so I decided it was time to get in behind the dash and see how much of a mess the previous owner made.

Removed the centre console (damn you Haynes, you make it look so easy - but it isn't easy, is it Haynes?) and was greeted with a massive tangle of aftermarket wiring, snap-lock wire connectors, loose bullet plugs everywhere, random feeds taken from existing factory-original feeds, and to top things off a massive chocolate block connector tying the whole lot together. There was even what looked like a piece of flat household wire taking a feed somewhere that had been cut off and left bare.

Anyway, I've now removed this metric ton of absolute crap, cleaned all the connections in the engine bay and Vaselined them up, and amazingly the car started on the tiny, tiny bit of charge left in the battery - and it's running beautifully.

I've also replaced that fuse now, and the interior lights, the dash clocks and the stereo are all noticeably brighter than before, so I reckon the cause of all this was a loose wire earthing somewhere behind the dash intermittently.

Fingers crossed it'll stay like this - do you lot still reckon I should replace that earth strap on the coil mount? Thanks for all your help as well - I know more about car electrics than I did before all this!

[ianaudia4]

As I stated on another thread, check the basics first. Glad to hear that you are sorted mate.