Super Happy Electrical Gremlin! Update: Defeated!

**bergerac** · 14-01-2007, 10:16 AM

My celica was doing something similar and it turned out to be a bad connection on one of the connections to the alternator was dirty, cant remember exactly which one it was off the top of my head though

**Talasas** · 14-01-2007, 06:46 PM

I've only just brushed over the posts in this thread but I have a question for you:

Do you have an immobiliser fitted?

They can cause VERY unusual illogical behaviour that is sometimes extremely difficult to spot. My girlfriend's car had one hidden inside and it took us 2 years to suss it out. Once I tore the bastard out everything was fine and has been ever since.

My advice is if you DO have an immobiliser, disconnect the power to it. Working out electrical gremlins without it attached is easier also.

**011** · 14-01-2007, 10:00 PM

Originally Posted by Talasas

I've only just brushed over the posts in this thread but I have a question for you:

Do you have an immobiliser fitted?

They can cause VERY unusual illogical behaviour that is sometimes extremely difficult to spot. My girlfriend's car had one hidden inside and it took us 2 years to suss it out. Once I tore the bastard out everything was fine and has been ever since.

My advice is if you DO have an immobiliser, disconnect the power to it. Working out electrical gremlins without it attached is easier also.

Yeah it has one, and I'll take your advice and try that out. Although I've been playing with the car today and I can rule out the battery (bought a new one simply for diagnostics and took it back to Supercheap lol). We've been playing around with the main fuse box in the engine bay behind the passenger and we're thinking it could be a faulty connection to a fuse or a relay. The plastic fuse box itself is cracked and doesn't look particularly healthy.

Had a play with the multimeter - with the new battery connected, the whole car would be 'dead' as if there was no battery connected at all. However, there was about 0.35v running through all the electrics of the car. We found that if you left the battery disconnected for an hour or so then reconnected it a few times, it would get power back and you could start it. It idled fine, but the tacho was acting erratic and so was the voltmeter. The Supercharger light was sort of half on and dimmly flickering. When you gave it a rev, all the warning lights would light up slowly depending on where you revved it to. We tried re-earthing it on the chassis and block with a jumper lead to no avail. I'm also thinking, could it be the voltage regulator? OR, could it even be a problem with the ECU?

I'm this close to taking it to an auto electrician and making it somebody else's problem.

**wiso** · 21-01-2007, 06:21 PM

the battery shouldn't be fucked its only just over a year old, i bought it when i got the car as the previous one was dead.

I had an issue with my lights before, but not like this, it was every time i turned the hi beams on all the lights in the car went out, it was just a bad contact on the high beam switch IIRC. but like i said, it never affected starting.

I would also say check both grounds on the engine, one from behind the coil to the head, the other from the battery to the gearbox. I think the one from the coil to head metled once before and i replaced it. maybe check it.

alos have you touched any wires on the starter relay, maybe pull it out of the equation and return the wiring to normal to check it

**011** · 24-01-2007, 06:54 PM

The gremlin hath been slain!

I thought people here might want to know what the problem turned out to be for future reference should something similar spring up.

Well, I booked the ol' girl to see the Doctor (aka, 'Auto Electrician') and then it occurred to me, 'how am I going to get it there if it only starts once in every 50 times?'

The NRMA, that's how. Specifically, my 'Free2go' membership that I had acquired for the princely sum of 'free' (conditions apply, kids). They would kindly fund the tow truck mission.

So, I called 'em up and they came around within 10 mins, which was nice! (I've only had bad experiences with the NRMA before; I was once stuck at a park outside Kempsey for five hours with a dead-as-a-rock battery waiting for the NRMA, who turned out to be a hillbilly in a 1980-something Ford Courier, complete with dog-in-tray, faded blue NRMA decals and what appeared to be his entire family along for the ride.)

The guy wasn't simply going to nod a few times and Holla for the flatbed. It helped, though, that he was a regular customer of mine back in my Supercheap Auto days. We popped the lid, and the usual, rather confidence-draining question came: "Ohhh, the engine's in the boot." What are you doing in the NRMA? You should be a Private Eye.

As he poked this and kicked that, he took the neg terminal off but couldn't get the pos one off. It can't be on that tight, I thought to myself. As Mr Knee-high-socks went to the van for his spanner, I grasped at the end of the cables connected to the pos terminal and wriggled them a bit to entice the terminal to relieve its grasp of the post.

The wriggling stopped. I looked down to see a copper wire, frayed to hell and warm like a freshly dead duck. There it was - the stupidly small problem.

NRMAman stripped both sides of the wire and crimped them together. Problem solved. I felt stupid for missing the small problem but relieved that I didn't have to ride the train in stark fear without a ticket to pay off an auto electrician's invoice.

So there you have it! The rest of the story and the symptoms should be self-explanatory, provided the cause now identified. Underlying message of this story? Check everything systematically, and even check underneath deceivingly fresh looking electrical tape.

Cheers,
slip.

P.S. Who were the ones that first sniffed out the connection issue? Applause to your wisdom - and a little gold star, to boot.

Thankyou.

**wiso** · 24-01-2007, 08:43 PM

hahaha damn, its usually so easy, good work, glad she's running again

**JBs** · 24-01-2007, 08:53 PM

Haha congrats slipstream, now you have no excuse not to turn up to the next event.

**011** · 24-01-2007, 09:23 PM

Originally Posted by JBs

Haha congrats slipstream, now you have no excuse not to turn up to the next event.

Lack of NSW rego (thanks to wiso for being very patient with this - the car is still registered in the ACT, in his name!

) and no insurance as yet means I haven't driven it out of the hours of 11pm to 6am (the least riskiest time to drive it). Even then, I drive it pretty sedately.

Insurance and rego is on teh way! Going to cost a bit (I Hate The RTA), but we'll get there. And I just bought Koffee's gold Equips which drained my rego/insurance fund a bit...

**JBs** · 24-01-2007, 09:34 PM

Originally Posted by slipstream

Lack of NSW rego (thanks to wiso for being very patient with this - the car is still registered in the ACT, in his name!

) and no insurance as yet means I haven't driven it out of the hours of 11pm to 6am (the least riskiest time to drive it). Even then, I drive it pretty sedately.

Insurance and rego is on teh way! Going to cost a bit (I Hate The RTA), but we'll get there. And I just bought Koffee's gold Equips which drained my rego/insurance fund a bit...

Ouch, at least at good choice of rims.

**TA-022** · 25-01-2007, 01:18 PM

hehehe reminds me of 'IN 05 NT' s AFM problem ... no fuel.

ROFL

**"Z" UTE** · 29-01-2007, 01:34 PM

Battery dies, fit another battery, battery dies. Have alternator overhauled, refit alternator, fit NEW battery, battery dies. Starting to give me the shits. Removes alternator, bench checked OK. Refits alternator. Battery dies, mutter#$#@fart.

Problem solved by replacing the battery terminals, the jap battery terminals, had a different taper to the Aussie battery posts. This resulted in an extremely small contact area between the terminal and the post. The high current draw through the terminals exacerbated the problem.

I loove electrics.

cheers Chuck.