Electric Gremlins

[V8Bart]

Couple of Gremlins giving me grief, the wipers killed themselves earlier this year taking out the drive rack and mount tube.
Fixed with refurbished motor etc but its not because they still keep randomly switching on and won't turn off. Definitely not the park switch, could it be the relay? Anyone know a standard part number to avoid TVR tax?

The other one is hot start issue, fuel pump primes but car does not even try to start, is this the hot start issue I've read about?

Thanks for any pointers.

[Mike8448]

Hi there, I can't comment on the Wiper issue.

I have been having some Ecu issues and while I was looking at a immobiliser bypass a hot start diagnosis was sent to me via Dave Brown.

Here is a snippet of what his email says
[i] Essentially TVR wired the immobiliser incorrectly, they used the higher amp Meta relay for the low amp ECU circuit and the low amp Meta relay for the high amp starter solenoid circuit, the relay responsible for the ECU therefore rarely gives trouble but that low amp Meta relay really suffers to deal with all the load generated by the starter solenoid. Over time the contacts on that relay become pitted and eroded, with the increase in resistance that always comes with heat the end result is the car fails to start.

What you really need to do is replace the faulty relay inside the immobiliser with one that is designed to carry the amount of amps drawn by the starter solenoid, however this approach is not particularly practical so don't attempt it unless you are experienced with delicate electronics.

Abacus Alarms, HF Solutions and Carl Baker of TVR Alarms all offer a number of solutions for TVR owners that completely solves the problem in a more professional and complete way, but you prefer to save yourself a chunk of money and get more or less the same result just complete a bypass.[/i]

Dave can provide all the info to bypass the immobiliser. You can send him a in mail on.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?h=...

Best of luck
Mike

[Tyre Tread]

The wipers switching on sound like they are earthing somewhere intermittently.

I was helping a friend sort the horns on his car and when we disconnected the horns and pressed the horn switch, the wipers started running.

As for the hot start issue, I'm nit convinced that the usual reasons cited are necessarily correct but I'm no expert. I recommend however that you get your alarm ruled out as the cause and recommend Abacus Alarms as they have been very helpful on more than one occasion.

[jesfirth]

the starting issue could be a poor connection on the spade connector to the solenoid on the starter motor - its quite common. its the small single wire to the starter - a bit of a pig to get at though- you have to do it from underneath

[Colin RedGriff]

Tyre Tread said:

The wipers switching on sound like they are earthing somewhere intermittently.

I was helping a friend sort the horns on his car and when we disconnected the horns and pressed the horn switch, the wipers started running.

As for the hot start issue, I'm nit convinced that the usual reasons cited are necessarily correct but I'm no expert. I recommend however that you get your alarm ruled out as the cause and recommend Abacus Alarms as they have been very helpful on more than one occasion.

This. ^^^^

Check the earth point at the front end of the chassis, offside - visible from the front underneath the radiator. In the end of the bottom longitudinal chassis tube

[V8Bart]

Cheers guys, the front earth point and wheel arch look sound, though not able to remove and refit that front one.
I'll check the starter connection for hot start.

[Steve_D]

V8Bart said:

Cheers guys, the front earth point and wheel arch look sound, though not able to remove and refit that front one.
I'll check the starter connection for hot start.

If the hot start issue is repeatable then when you check the connection on the start solenoid add a second wire and bring it up into the top of the engine bay.
next time it fails to hot start take your new wire and connect it to a good +12v supply and see if the engine turns over.
If it does you have proved the problem is somewhere in the wiring to the starter (possibly the immobiliser). If it does not turn over then the problem is in the starter, its main supply or the engine earths.

Your wiper issue is unlikely to be an earth but if it was it would be top of the tunnel passenger side.
possibilities are delay relay but more likely the switch.

Steve