Emergency Help Needed - Dead 440 Electrical System

Driving home on 40 mile trip, battery light came on round a sharp
corner, went off straight away. Got home, everything seemed normal.
Went to start the car to get it out of the way of my other half's car
- nothing. Nada, zilch. Zero. Bugger all.
All I've got is external lights. No ignition or dash lights, no
attempt to turn the starter motor. D-E-A-D.
It's not a battery terminal lead because the lights still work, so
what the hell is it? Also, the stereo must have been wired with a
permanent +ve, as it could be used without the key in or ignition on.
This is now NOT working.

Please, please, please let someone know how to fix this. There are no
obvious leads hanging off and I need this puppy for work tomorrow
morning.

Thanks in advance,

Chemical Taffy

 

On 11/11/03 9:04 AM, in article

You've checked the simple things like fuses, right?
While you are under the bonnet, check to ensure the lead to the starter
motor is *tight* as that can explain why you have lights, but no starter,
though the lack of dash lights is odd. Sounds like you have a disconnected
wire that leads to your computers brain, so back to checking all the power
supplies from the battery.

All the best

Hammo

 

I'd go with the battery or alternator... even if the battery's pretty dead,
it may be enough for the lights. Your radio is a good indication - as it's
permanently powered (not thru the ignition) it indicates the battery can't
supply enough juice.
1. The battery has died... the starter takes a lot of current, and may well
not turn over.
2. The alternator is dead/faulty, and is not charging the battery.

Simple tests:
1. Use a multimeter to check the voltage of the battery: When it isn't
under load, it should read I guess something over 13V DC. Jump starting
might well be enough to get it going, but you'll have the same problem when
you stop.
2. The alternator is as easy to test... but you need to jump the car to get
it going. The alternator should be giving out about 14V. If it's much
less, chances are it's faulty. Another symptom is that the car's likely to
stall when driving, as the battery can't keep powering the car's electrics
if it's not being charged.

Might be wrong, but should be very easy to eliminate these.

Mark

 

Could also be possible the ignition switch has failed.

 

Yep, but that wouldn't explain the radio not working (given it's not powered
thru the ignition on his car).

Mark

 

If the radio has also stopped working it could mean that some real bright
spark has wired it off the main power feed going to the ignition. If this
has gone there must be a main wire off somewhere.
Track from your battery along the thick red wire and keep following and
checking through all the connection boxes in line until you find where the
fault lies. Somewhere (although not being a 440 owner so not sure) you will
have a little black box where the main 16mm Red wire enters and lots of
Orange wires come out. The orange 4mm wires usually at the opposite end to
the Red are the ones that go to your ignition switch.

Don't quote me. I am a Thermoformer.