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[Chris123]

Hi all,

Have a 96 3.0 Elite, which I love but it has "one or two" electrical problems... would be very grateful for any wisdom you can offer...

Bit of history first....
Battery was draining rather too fast (about a week of non-use)
A while ago, fuse 14 blew and PAS went with it, blew again when replaced, but I tried again at some point later Fuse and PAS ok.
Broke my arm, left the car off the road with battery disconnected for a year.
Today, got a new battery planning to get the car going again.
(Before anyone asks yes it was the right battery and the polarity was correct)

On connecting the battery, I was expecting the alarm to go off, but it did not. Instead, something chucked out a load of white smoke and a burning smell (coming from somewhere down low drivers side of the engine). I yanked the battery connection off again, then on advice connected it again to work out where the smoke had been coming from. On reconnecting the battery, there was no more smoke or burning smell, the interior fan started up, the recirculate and eco aircon lights were lit, but none of the others, dashboard indicator lights were both on solid not blinking, the actual indicators were not on. Turning the key started the windscreen wipers even though they were not switched on, starting attempt didn't sound like it was doing much at all.

I'm afraid I'm really not technical so please bear with me.

I guess the basic question is what to do now? Assuming some very ugly things have happened with the electrics, what sort of cost would I be looking at to get this sort of thing checked etc / repaired?

Very grateful for any advice you can offer! Basically trying to work out whether to write it off or invest a bit of cash in getting it looked at.

Chris

[Weds]

Well obviously you need to find the source of the fire/smoke, could you have had mice or some other inhabitants chewing some of the cables.

I suspect some of the cable cores have shorted together causing things like your wipers working when not switched on.

Hopefully the damage is contained in the engine bay and not behind the dash..

[FRE07962128]

Hi all,

Have a 96 3.0 Elite, which I love but it has "one or two" electrical problems... would be very grateful for any wisdom you can offer...

Bit of history first....
Battery was draining rather too fast (about a week of non-use)
A while ago, fuse 14 blew and PAS went with it, blew again when replaced, but I tried again at some point later Fuse and PAS ok.
Broke my arm, left the car off the road with battery disconnected for a year.
Today, got a new battery planning to get the car going again.
(Before anyone asks yes it was the right battery and the polarity was correct)

On connecting the battery, I was expecting the alarm to go off, but it did not. Instead, something chucked out a load of white smoke and a burning smell (coming from somewhere down low drivers side of the engine). I yanked the battery connection off again, then on advice connected it again to work out where the smoke had been coming from. On reconnecting the battery, there was no more smoke or burning smell, the interior fan started up, the recirculate and eco aircon lights were lit, but none of the others, dashboard indicator lights were both on solid not blinking, the actual indicators were not on. Turning the key started the windscreen wipers even though they were not switched on, starting attempt didn't sound like it was doing much at all.

I'm afraid I'm really not technical so please bear with me.

I guess the basic question is what to do now? Assuming some very ugly things have happened with the electrics, what sort of cost would I be looking at to get this sort of thing checked etc / repaired?

Very grateful for any advice you can offer! Basically trying to work out whether to write it off or invest a bit of cash in getting it looked at.

Chris

Vx (in Ashford) will charge £75 per hour to investigate plus repair costs!  

Try and sort it out yourself by checking all leads and fuses (what have blown this time?) back from source to equipment.  It certainly seems like a short of some kind, and because of the fire risk I would not leave the battery connected until you are sure of the problem.

Hope you find the answer!

[HolyCount]

Judging by the apparent amount of shorting, there has to be a block of cable somewhere in the engine bay or nearby showing fire damage --- melted insulation at least. First action would be keep battery disconnected, then trace wires around as far as possible looking for the source of the smoke.
Hopefully you might be able to cut and splice the damaged section.

[VXL V6]

Could be anything really, It may be the power sounder trying to charge it's internal batteries up (Which are probably leaking) now a new main battery has been fitted.

If you put your location on your profile there may be someone near to you who can help.  

[Chris123]

Thanks very much for your help everyone. I'll let you know how I get on... :-)

[Kevin Wood]

Sounds to me like something has shorted a permanent ignition feed to a switched feed, amongst other things. On the driver's side, my first suspicion would be the power sounder as, on mine, conductive goo from leaking batteries shorted some connections in the power sounder.

Next suspect would be the connections to the power steering box, as that has blown fuses.

As others have said, see if you can find the burnt wiring.

Kevin

[Chris123]

Hi all,

I've decided it's time for a non-mechanically-electrically minded chap like me to say a fond farewell to this car and shop for a newer one.

If you're interested, I am disposing of the old one, either through scrap or through this forum, see my other thread here:
http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1209552261/0

Thanks for the help anyway, may your omegas run forever!

Chris

[Debs.]

Hi all,

I've decided it's time for a non-mechanically-electrically minded chap like me to say a fond farewell to this car and shop for a newer one.

If you're interested, I am disposing of the old one, either through scrap or through this forum, see my other thread here:
http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1209552261/0

Thanks for the help anyway, may your omegas run forever!

Chris

Thread Hijack  

[Chris123]

You're saying I'm hijacking my own thread?

Chris

[Debs.]

  Apologies

[Chris123]

No worries, just thought it was funny actually :-)

Chris

[HolyCount]

Hi all,

I've decided it's time for a non-mechanically-electrically minded chap like me to say a fond farewell to this car and shop for a newer one.

If you're interested, I am disposing of the old one, either through scrap or through this forum, see my other thread here:
http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1209552261/0

Thanks for the help anyway, may your omegas run forever!

Chris

Thread Hijack  

Debs are you getting trigger happy ?

[Debs.]

....Debs are you getting trigger happy ?

  `Having a bad-day H.C.....in my defence; I`m going to be without my car for a week now, `very upsetting!  

[MutantCav]

Update on this thread, just bought the car from Chris (would have gone round to see if I could sort it out for him if I wasnt so far away)...towed it back to parents house about 10 miles away, very nice looking car, good condition, excellent interior, 99k FSH MOT's verifying milage...had a quick look over when I got it home to see if there was anything obvious...

One thing stood out...battery was in place with the connectors unplugged...but the battery was the wrong way around (swapped a few recently so I knew which way round it should be, not as obvious as it should be normally)...swapped battery round, fired up first time...bit of white smoke coming from the back of the drivers side corner of the engine...think its steam though from a small pool of water accumulated on the top of the cam cover...not had it running for long but seems ok for the moment Will check it out properly tomorrow...