Dodgy electrical faults / failing to start - ignition switch

[arry]

The dash lights dim out too though, and when it had its properly funny turns the car wouldn't start, spoiler raised etc. But at the battery the voltage would still show healthy. I've never managed to see a reading I wouldn't expect at the battery but yet it is obviously having charging issues.

 

[deMort]

Hmm .. this is getting interesting and difficult !

As usual with problems like this you are no where near me sigh ..

God hates me and so lets other people get all the fun fixing these things lol .

Im not 100% convinced this is not some sort of instrument cluster fault .. but your last post was interesting so i just want to confirm this ..

With all the problems you have had with starting and flat battery symtoms did you have a voltmeter on the battery and it said the battery was fine ?

This is the weird part so wanted to confirm this ..

If we say the battery is NOT the fault then we are left with the connection FROM the battery ..

Earth lead is cheap to replace or a jumper lead bypassing it will test that .

Im thinking theres a possible problem with the power distributor board ..

If you had a 997 then i would be saying its definatly that but 996 doesn,t connect the same way and doesnt give problems .. well pretty much never does but i dont need to post about that problem .

The new alternator seems to have stopped the non starting for the moment .. so .. keep monitoring or start pulling bits appart in case theres a fault .. hmm.

Let me know as above but i think we might need to have a chat on the phone if you want to continue further .

Let me know if so and ill pm you my number .

 

[taffybloke]

Just my inexperienced thought here. It does sound like a earth fault and you say you have checked it, this I assume is the battery to chassis one but is there an engine to chassis one as well. Just a thought.


Mike

 

[arry]

Thanks Demort - I'll take you up on that, it would be good to bounce it off of someone as its driving me insane trying to work it out myself!

 

[deMort]

Number sent young man

 

[arry]

Update!

I've been chasing this one around for a while now and eventually decided I didn't have the necessary electrical skills to fix it myself - so I hired someone in that comes very highly recommended and as it turns out, those recommendations were spot on - he's a legend and a half.

At first we thought we'd isolated it down to the engine earth. Bypassing it saw the dashboard go back up to full brightness - so we swapped the engine earth totally expecting it to be that. But no :lol: Turns out it was just a pure coincidence that the problem dropped in / out again at that point in time.

So then we turned our attention to relays under rear shelf and fuses under dashboard. Whilst working under the dashboard my guy just happened to catch the loom plug for the ignition switch and guess what, all of a sudden the dashboard is back.

A bit of faff later and we find that it is indeed the ignition switch has bitten the dust. New switch now in, and the car is back up working consistently, YAY :grin: :grin:

However, would you believe it - the new battery I bought back last year is goosed. I still had the old battery sitting in the corner, which hadn't been charged or anything for all that time - tested it at 11.9v and the drop out test showed it to still be holding steady!!

So the battery has to go back, but at least that's been found at the same time.

Happy happy joy joy!

 

[arry]

150 lane miles done and not a single problem with charging. It's great to be back!