Scirocco Register

Hey guys I know this isn't about a rocco but I was wondering if any of you could help me with a problem I am having on a friends mx

Basically they said that they were driving one day when the engine just cut out and they took it to a garage and they said what ever it is it is an electrical issue and refused to touch it which didn't really surprise me.

Therefore I ended up with the wonderful job of fixing it.

Went and had a look earlier today and the first thing I noticed what that the main 80 amp fuse had melted, I presumed this meant either the alternator had gone pop of some sort or there was a wire shorting somewhere. So I then replaced the fuse and turned the ignition on (didn't start it) and most thing fired up as normal and the fuse is fine.

I then tried to start the car and it just kept turning over, after more investigation I found that the 10a fuse In the internal fuse box labled room had blown and presumed this was due to the 80a one blowing so I replaced this. The new one blew instantly when plugging it in.

Therefore to try and see if this was why the car wouldn't start (an act of stupidity I think thinking about it after) I used a 30a fuse in its place and that worked. Therefore I tried starting the car and it did the same as before. (I then removed the fuse just in case as it was to high of a rating) - presumed this was a separate issue to the starting one so left it as it was for now.

I did discover it had a toad alarm fitted and the owner said they had been having trouble with this so not sure if this would be the issue.

Also when trying to start the fuel pump relay worked but I'm not sure if I could hear the pump itself ( not sure if this could be alarm immobiliser related)

Anyway I am pretty stumped and was wondering if anyone could shed some light on things?
*ps his was written on my phone so sorry if there are any mistakes, it's been a long day lol *

Thanks in advanced

If the immob is known to be troublesome, i'd start by removing it. Some immobs short stuff to earth when the car is immobilised to stop you just running a feed straight to them, which might explain your fuse popping.

You need to find out exactly what those fuses protect too. Then I'd be checking for chafing wiring

Just found this " room fuse circuit which powers the dome light, trunk light, radio presets, and has a line running to the ECU "

Which could also explain the non starting if the ecu isn't happy... Is there a simple way to check the ecu I would plug it in but I only have obd2 and it doesn't lol

the simple way to bench test an ecu is to pull it out and send it of to be bench tested. really wouldn't start there.

what year is it?

It's a 2000 (w reg) the most fun but is I've never worked on one before and haven't a clue in any cable roots so it's all learning lol

according to my book, these are obd compliant from mid 90s, so a decent code reader should do it. failing that, might be worth a try to see if you can extract flash codes from it, but won't work if it is obd compliant

http://www.miata.net/garage/Engine_Diagnostics.html

Sorry I was wrong, there is an diagnosic port under the bonnet passenger side but it's not the connection which I have (obd2) and I'm not 100 percent sure what it is. Think it may be obd

The port looks like the image on here
http://www.mx5life.com/forum/index.php/ ... -they-for/

I haven't read this page yet I will later as not at home at the moment just wanted to let you know what it was like

Thanks

yes, that looks like you should be able to extract flash codes from it

Ok great ill give it ago, don't hold out much hope as the battery was off it for ages apparently