Total Electrical Failure

[simman]

Was driving along the A406 last night when I smelt a strange burning smell coming from the bonnet. Started powering down items, stereo, wipers, fans etc but to no avail. Suddenly power went, headlights, engine(!) and power steering. I managed to limp off the dual carriage way and with momentum crawled up the curb. Luckily the road was lit and not too busy or I could have been up sh1t creek without the proverbial paddle!

Got out of the car using the magic red handle but, doh, shut the door after me! Luckily I had left the window open and the nice AA man was able to reach in to turn the wheel as he heaved it up the flat bed truck.

Well, I've checked the BIG FUSE and all the fuses in the boot but all seems ok? One strange thing however, after manually opening the passengers door, when I shut it the power came back on for about 1 second Is this coincidence or could it be related?

Does anyone have any ideas what the problem might be? Could it somehow be related to the HUGE amp (that looks like it might need the national power grid to power it!) in the boot that the previous owner had fitted?

[anonymous-user]

I had this a couple of years ago, all the electrics gradually died until the car eventually stalled.

I can't remember the name of the part now, it was some sort of electrical relay that had failed.

Wasn't expensive to fix.

[TVR SLAG's BiL]

Simman,
It would seem the same thing happened to me today! I was on a V busy roundabout and the Cerbie just died! Stereo, wipers lights and all. I managed to get out and push the car to the side of the road. The Battery was too low to turn the engine over but enough power to let me in and out. After a bit of head scratching I called a mate who came along and gave me a jump start. All was fine (?) When I was back home I looked further into it. I found the problem within minutes, the main cable that runs from the battery to the starter, I think, was routed very very close to the exhaust manifold. The insulation had burnt through and for a short period of time the battery was earthed by the manifold, thus a total system flop! All was sorted after some re-routing and a repair to the main cable.

Hope its some help

[simman]

Thanks for the ideas.

Bandit - any ideas where this relay was located?

Joospeed gave me some very good suggestions as to what to look out for (thanks for your help Julian) but unfortunately there is nothing obviously wrong. He did suggest there was a fuse (100amp) under the dash on the passengers side. I tried looking for it but to no avail.

Anyone know anything about this?

[anonymous-user]

Afraid not.

My car was towed to a TVR garage and they sorted it out there. Didn't see where the offending part lived... and it was a couple of years ago now and I can't remember the part name either. Sorry !

[arcbeer]

This happened to me. Turned out the big fuse at the bottom of the engine bay (not sure where it is exactly but apprently a bugger to get to) had blown. Thus the alternator could not charge the battery and the battery ran flat. Had the car towed to the dealer who replaced the fuse and all was fine again.

[jnr]

Have a look at This thread


JohnR

[simman]

Got a step closer to solving the problem but still to no avail. When I 'wiggled' the bunch of live wires from the battery terminal, the power came back on!! As soon as I started the engine it powered down again. Couldn't see any obvious shorting going.

Oh well, it's now on it's way to the garage on a flatbed. Thanks for the suggestions so far though.