Advice on Ignition fuse blowing
Discussion
I took my car in for a new windscreen on thursday and its still there , they fitted the screen when I was ready to leave all the dash did not light up no fuel pumps cut in no heater fans ,boot release etc and the engine would not turn over I found the ignition fuse blown ,put a new fuse in every thing was then working until I turned the key to start the engine and the fuse blew again , they got RAC man in after blowing several fuses it started up ,he stoped the engine tried again and it blew the fuse ,on one try the engine started but the starter kept turning over he pulled the fuse to stop the starter ,his diagnosis is there is a a intermitent short to earth on the ignition lead between starter motor and ignition switch ,they contacted local TVR who would not look at it for a month the local Lucas agent are sending a bloke on monday to have a look ,my problem now is the car is 30 mile away I am going to get it relayed home on monday and sort it myself ,but my auto electrical knowledge its basic I think I should lift the car and work back fron the starter ,trace the lead , check the back of the fuse box and then think about the starter motor then ignition switch , also I will need to buy a decent test meter ,any advice on that would be a help and also any advice on this problem could be a life saver for me the car is a 2000 model,the bosch starter motor is six months old and this is the first electrical problem ever with the car thank you for any help I am getting greyer by the minute regards Steve.
Oh dear, that sounds like a bit of a nightmare.
On the plus side, if the problem only occurs when you use the starter then get it bump started and be very carefull not to stall on the drive home.
Your diagnosis of the wiring fault does sound reasonable. The switched supply to the starter motor has an ordinary spade connection which you can get at from underneath the car if you jack the car up 6" or so - it will be filthy dirty unfortunately. You could disconnect the wire and measure resistance to ground to see whether there was any problem, also leave it disconnected and try the starter to see if it still blows the fuse, would confirm the problem is the wiring not a short within the solenoid.
As a backup, you can buy resettable circuit breakers that replace the ordinary blade fuses, including ones with an auto reset function that might come in useful if you have to drive for any distance with this problem.
Best of luck, let us know how you get on?
On the plus side, if the problem only occurs when you use the starter then get it bump started and be very carefull not to stall on the drive home.
Your diagnosis of the wiring fault does sound reasonable. The switched supply to the starter motor has an ordinary spade connection which you can get at from underneath the car if you jack the car up 6" or so - it will be filthy dirty unfortunately. You could disconnect the wire and measure resistance to ground to see whether there was any problem, also leave it disconnected and try the starter to see if it still blows the fuse, would confirm the problem is the wiring not a short within the solenoid.
As a backup, you can buy resettable circuit breakers that replace the ordinary blade fuses, including ones with an auto reset function that might come in useful if you have to drive for any distance with this problem.
Best of luck, let us know how you get on?
Cheers for that Peter I was going to drive it home when it started up on thursday but the RAC guy was adament I should not, so I think it will be AA relay ,disconecting the spade to eliminat the starter is obvious once some one says it and I did not know you could get resetable breakers so thank you,I just hope it is a duff starter and that would take care of it stiking on as well as blowing the fuse other wise the problem could be bigger that I hope,question, is there a relay in the starter system apart from the one on the starter motor and if so where is it, regards Steve.
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