Funny electrical gremlins...
Discussion
I was just watching an episode of Top Gear on Dave and wondered if the Excel was still on the road when I came across the last evidence of an MOT...
OK, it was probably done deliberately to annoy James May but I did wonder.
Have you found any humorous modifications, electrical or otherwise?
OK, it was probably done deliberately to annoy James May but I did wonder.
Have you found any humorous modifications, electrical or otherwise?
Oilchange said:
I was just watching an episode of Top Gear on Dave and wondered if the Excel was still on the road when I came across the last evidence of an MOT...
OK, it was probably done deliberately to annoy James May but I did wonder.
Have you found any humorous modifications, electrical or otherwise?
I don't understand at all what you are trying to get at? What does the MOT have to do with the electrics?OK, it was probably done deliberately to annoy James May but I did wonder.
Have you found any humorous modifications, electrical or otherwise?
Anyway, the most amusing electrical gremlin I had was the hazard lights in my old Cavaliers. Both of them developed the same fault, and the cure for this fault was to jam the wooden stick from an ice lolly into the gap around the button to stop it moving. If you wanted your hazards to go on, you pulled the stick out
Shakermaker said:
I don't understand at all what you are trying to get at? What does the MOT have to do with the electrics?
Anyway, the most amusing electrical gremlin I had was the hazard lights in my old Cavaliers. Both of them developed the same fault, and the cure for this fault was to jam the wooden stick from an ice lolly into the gap around the button to stop it moving. If you wanted your hazards to go on, you pulled the stick out
The advisory states that the headlights pop up when the brake is applied.Anyway, the most amusing electrical gremlin I had was the hazard lights in my old Cavaliers. Both of them developed the same fault, and the cure for this fault was to jam the wooden stick from an ice lolly into the gap around the button to stop it moving. If you wanted your hazards to go on, you pulled the stick out
My very first car was a 1934 Austin 12. I bought it in 1968 from a guy I knew in Swansea for 25 quid and five albums of his choice out of my record collection. This bloke had fallen asleep at a party at Bishopston Rectory and woke up to find the car painted in psychedelic multicoloured stripes all over. I did say this was 1968.
The car had its original wiring, which I suppose must have been waterproof initially, but the insulation had deteriorated to patchy bits of randomly distributed cloth. On one particularly filthy night the car was so rain drenched that all the electrical signals must have been making their way through the bodywork and chassis as discrete little impulses hoping, but failing, to find their intended destinations. I had to drive home from Newport Gwent to The Mumbles, and got pulled over by the police at least three times for lack of lights, but that's another story. I was experimenting all the way with the switches and knobs, finding out (for instance) that flipping the indicator switch sounded the horn, and so on.
My mate was doing an degree in electronics at Bangor, so we decided to have a go at rewiring the entire car. All went quite well until we had to remove the big Bakelite multi position switch at the centre of the dashboard. It cracked in two. We made our way to the Lucas warehouse in Cardiff, with little hope of finding a replacement.
There was a little bloke with a brown shop coat at the front counter and when we asked, kind of casually, for a centre dash switch for a 1934 Austin 12 he just stared at us dubiously. We might as well have been asking for four candles. However, after a few moments he turned round and pulled down an old catalogue the size of a telephone directory from the top of a grey metal cupboard. It landed in the counter with a cloud of dust, I kid you not.
"Mmmmm - you want an ABCXYZ987654321" (or words to that effect) he said and went off out into the warehouse. Two minutes later he came back a put a little cardboard box on the counter, a bit faded but proudly bearing it's original 1930's style print and logos. Inside was the very article we needed, identical in every way to the one we broke.
We completed the re-wiring and the car ran fine, until - but that's another story.
The car had its original wiring, which I suppose must have been waterproof initially, but the insulation had deteriorated to patchy bits of randomly distributed cloth. On one particularly filthy night the car was so rain drenched that all the electrical signals must have been making their way through the bodywork and chassis as discrete little impulses hoping, but failing, to find their intended destinations. I had to drive home from Newport Gwent to The Mumbles, and got pulled over by the police at least three times for lack of lights, but that's another story. I was experimenting all the way with the switches and knobs, finding out (for instance) that flipping the indicator switch sounded the horn, and so on.
My mate was doing an degree in electronics at Bangor, so we decided to have a go at rewiring the entire car. All went quite well until we had to remove the big Bakelite multi position switch at the centre of the dashboard. It cracked in two. We made our way to the Lucas warehouse in Cardiff, with little hope of finding a replacement.
There was a little bloke with a brown shop coat at the front counter and when we asked, kind of casually, for a centre dash switch for a 1934 Austin 12 he just stared at us dubiously. We might as well have been asking for four candles. However, after a few moments he turned round and pulled down an old catalogue the size of a telephone directory from the top of a grey metal cupboard. It landed in the counter with a cloud of dust, I kid you not.
"Mmmmm - you want an ABCXYZ987654321" (or words to that effect) he said and went off out into the warehouse. Two minutes later he came back a put a little cardboard box on the counter, a bit faded but proudly bearing it's original 1930's style print and logos. Inside was the very article we needed, identical in every way to the one we broke.
We completed the re-wiring and the car ran fine, until - but that's another story.
Just had another memory flash. Back when I was a student in a grotty little digs in north London, the chap in the room downstairs had a s
t-brown Vauxhall Chevette he was flogging. I had a look over it and after a moment of nostalgic madness, I took it off his hands. (We had one almost identical as a first new car when I was young)
Anyway, the reason he was getting shot of it became apparent as after about 5 minutes acidic fumes started to fill the inside and I thought I was going to choke, someone had worked on it and it seemed like battery acid was being pumped into the air intake for the cabin. Horrendous!
t-brown Vauxhall Chevette he was flogging. I had a look over it and after a moment of nostalgic madness, I took it off his hands. (We had one almost identical as a first new car when I was young)Anyway, the reason he was getting shot of it became apparent as after about 5 minutes acidic fumes started to fill the inside and I thought I was going to choke, someone had worked on it and it seemed like battery acid was being pumped into the air intake for the cabin. Horrendous!
Edited by Oilchange on Saturday 30th September 10:02
Roofless Toothless said:
My very first car was a 1934 Austin 12. I bought it in 1968 from a guy I knew in Swansea for 25 quid and five albums of his choice out of my record collection. This bloke had fallen asleep at a party at Bishopston Rectory and woke up to find the car painted in psychedelic multicoloured stripes all over. I did say this was 1968.
The car had its original wiring, which I suppose must have been waterproof initially, but the insulation had deteriorated to patchy bits of randomly distributed cloth. On one particularly filthy night the car was so rain drenched that all the electrical signals must have been making their way through the bodywork and chassis as discrete little impulses hoping, but failing, to find their intended destinations. I had to drive home from Newport Gwent to The Mumbles, and got pulled over by the police at least three times for lack of lights, but that's another story. I was experimenting all the way with the switches and knobs, finding out (for instance) that flipping the indicator switch sounded the horn, and so on.
My mate was doing an degree in electronics at Bangor, so we decided to have a go at rewiring the entire car. All went quite well until we had to remove the big Bakelite multi position switch at the centre of the dashboard. It cracked in two. We made our way to the Lucas warehouse in Cardiff, with little hope of finding a replacement.
There was a little bloke with a brown shop coat at the front counter and when we asked, kind of casually, for a centre dash switch for a 1934 Austin 12 he just stared at us dubiously. We might as well have been asking for four candles. However, after a few moments he turned round and pulled down an old catalogue the size of a telephone directory from the top of a grey metal cupboard. It landed in the counter with a cloud of dust, I kid you not.
"Mmmmm - you want an ABCXYZ987654321" (or words to that effect) he said and went off out into the warehouse. Two minutes later he came back a put a little cardboard box on the counter, a bit faded but proudly bearing it's original 1930's style print and logos. Inside was the very article we needed, identical in every way to the one we broke.
We completed the re-wiring and the car ran fine, until - but that's another story.
Well written The car had its original wiring, which I suppose must have been waterproof initially, but the insulation had deteriorated to patchy bits of randomly distributed cloth. On one particularly filthy night the car was so rain drenched that all the electrical signals must have been making their way through the bodywork and chassis as discrete little impulses hoping, but failing, to find their intended destinations. I had to drive home from Newport Gwent to The Mumbles, and got pulled over by the police at least three times for lack of lights, but that's another story. I was experimenting all the way with the switches and knobs, finding out (for instance) that flipping the indicator switch sounded the horn, and so on.
My mate was doing an degree in electronics at Bangor, so we decided to have a go at rewiring the entire car. All went quite well until we had to remove the big Bakelite multi position switch at the centre of the dashboard. It cracked in two. We made our way to the Lucas warehouse in Cardiff, with little hope of finding a replacement.
There was a little bloke with a brown shop coat at the front counter and when we asked, kind of casually, for a centre dash switch for a 1934 Austin 12 he just stared at us dubiously. We might as well have been asking for four candles. However, after a few moments he turned round and pulled down an old catalogue the size of a telephone directory from the top of a grey metal cupboard. It landed in the counter with a cloud of dust, I kid you not.
"Mmmmm - you want an ABCXYZ987654321" (or words to that effect) he said and went off out into the warehouse. Two minutes later he came back a put a little cardboard box on the counter, a bit faded but proudly bearing it's original 1930's style print and logos. Inside was the very article we needed, identical in every way to the one we broke.
We completed the re-wiring and the car ran fine, until - but that's another story.
Roofless Toothless said:
There was a little bloke with a brown shop coat at the front counter and when we asked, kind of casually, for a centre dash switch for a 1934 Austin 12 he just stared at us dubiously. We might as well have been asking for four candles. However, after a few moments he turned round and pulled down an old catalogue the size of a telephone directory from the top of a grey metal cupboard. It landed in the counter with a cloud of dust, I kid you not.
"Mmmmm - you want an ABCXYZ987654321" (or words to that effect) he said and went off out into the warehouse. Two minutes later he came back a put a little cardboard box on the counter, a bit faded but proudly bearing it's original 1930's style print and logos. Inside was the very article we needed, identical in every way to the one we broke.
"No, FORK HANDLES. Handles for forks!""Mmmmm - you want an ABCXYZ987654321" (or words to that effect) he said and went off out into the warehouse. Two minutes later he came back a put a little cardboard box on the counter, a bit faded but proudly bearing it's original 1930's style print and logos. Inside was the very article we needed, identical in every way to the one we broke.
Nice story btw
MikeGoodwin said:
Have you ever owned a Renault?
A friend of mine owned a Renault Megane people carrier type thing (I judged him harshly for it, of course) and it was a bloody nightmare, the electrics were a right hodge podge job and were nothing but trouble, the final straw was when the fuse box filled with water, a common fault apparently, he scrapped itI have a funny story about when some water got into the electric window switch of a Pug 306 estate, whereby the window would basically go up and down as it pleased. Myself and my mate went out to town in the evening and I pulled a girl who wanted to come back to mine. Said window then got stuck in the down position, and no amount of persuasion at 3am would make it behave.Next morning I had to drop her back home a few miles away, on a sharp October day. She was more than a little cold, and I never did see her again...
eybic said:
The advisory states that the headlights pop up when the brake is applied.
I wonder...Crappy earths to the rear light clusters, so the brakelights are finding a lowest-resistance path to earth back through the tail/sidelight circuit, which is sufficient to trigger the relays for headlight pop-up?
jet_noise said:
Roofless Toothless said:
My very first car was a 1934 Austin 12. I bought it in 1968 from a guy I knew in Swansea for 25 quid and five albums of his choice out of my record collection. This bloke had fallen asleep at a party at Bishopston Rectory and woke up to find the car painted in psychedelic multicoloured stripes all over. I did say this was 1968.
The car had its original wiring, which I suppose must have been waterproof initially, but the insulation had deteriorated to patchy bits of randomly distributed cloth. On one particularly filthy night the car was so rain drenched that all the electrical signals must have been making their way through the bodywork and chassis as discrete little impulses hoping, but failing, to find their intended destinations. I had to drive home from Newport Gwent to The Mumbles, and got pulled over by the police at least three times for lack of lights, but that's another story. I was experimenting all the way with the switches and knobs, finding out (for instance) that flipping the indicator switch sounded the horn, and so on.
My mate was doing an degree in electronics at Bangor, so we decided to have a go at rewiring the entire car. All went quite well until we had to remove the big Bakelite multi position switch at the centre of the dashboard. It cracked in two. We made our way to the Lucas warehouse in Cardiff, with little hope of finding a replacement.
There was a little bloke with a brown shop coat at the front counter and when we asked, kind of casually, for a centre dash switch for a 1934 Austin 12 he just stared at us dubiously. We might as well have been asking for four candles. However, after a few moments he turned round and pulled down an old catalogue the size of a telephone directory from the top of a grey metal cupboard. It landed in the counter with a cloud of dust, I kid you not.
"Mmmmm - you want an ABCXYZ987654321" (or words to that effect) he said and went off out into the warehouse. Two minutes later he came back a put a little cardboard box on the counter, a bit faded but proudly bearing it's original 1930's style print and logos. Inside was the very article we needed, identical in every way to the one we broke.
We completed the re-wiring and the car ran fine, until - but that's another story.
Well written The car had its original wiring, which I suppose must have been waterproof initially, but the insulation had deteriorated to patchy bits of randomly distributed cloth. On one particularly filthy night the car was so rain drenched that all the electrical signals must have been making their way through the bodywork and chassis as discrete little impulses hoping, but failing, to find their intended destinations. I had to drive home from Newport Gwent to The Mumbles, and got pulled over by the police at least three times for lack of lights, but that's another story. I was experimenting all the way with the switches and knobs, finding out (for instance) that flipping the indicator switch sounded the horn, and so on.
My mate was doing an degree in electronics at Bangor, so we decided to have a go at rewiring the entire car. All went quite well until we had to remove the big Bakelite multi position switch at the centre of the dashboard. It cracked in two. We made our way to the Lucas warehouse in Cardiff, with little hope of finding a replacement.
There was a little bloke with a brown shop coat at the front counter and when we asked, kind of casually, for a centre dash switch for a 1934 Austin 12 he just stared at us dubiously. We might as well have been asking for four candles. However, after a few moments he turned round and pulled down an old catalogue the size of a telephone directory from the top of a grey metal cupboard. It landed in the counter with a cloud of dust, I kid you not.
"Mmmmm - you want an ABCXYZ987654321" (or words to that effect) he said and went off out into the warehouse. Two minutes later he came back a put a little cardboard box on the counter, a bit faded but proudly bearing it's original 1930's style print and logos. Inside was the very article we needed, identical in every way to the one we broke.
We completed the re-wiring and the car ran fine, until - but that's another story.
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