Erratic Electrical Fault At Temperature & Stall

[Guest swisstony]

Hi to all,

 

From a recent expat now living in Switzerland - a desparate request to allow me to recover whats left of my annual holiday. :(

 

In quick succession my clutch bearing, cylinder and clutch failed on the eve of my one week with the kids. Local Ford Dealer here in Switzerland couldn't get me in before next week, so I used a local one man band (albanian) who did the job the next day. :ph34r:

 

Picked up the car, running sweet, packed for our trip and left in the dark and rain.

Noticed airbag light glowing ten minutes up the road, :ph34r: followed by lights dimming, wipers stopping, and instruments playing silly buggers. :(

 

Turned round and stalled. Mecanic came out & replaced a couple of fuses, problem continued. (he also fessed up to cracking what would be the UK passenger side headlight, which had some condensation :angry: )

 

Changed battery (for a used one) & investigated in his workshop. He took it to Ford this morning, Ford tested it cold, diagnosed battery failure, car returned to me this afternoon. :D

 

Test drove for half an hour with all the electrics on. My old friend the airbag light turned up, closely followed by handbrake light, ABS light and loss of power/stall. Cruised downhill for 30 seconds or so, car restarted, fine for ten minutes when the problem repeated.

 

Pulled in, swore at the mechanic in my best french down the mobile, and left the bonnet open. Ten minutes later restart no problem. Got home, ran the temperature up to half way. Red warning light on the temperature gauge - lo and behold airbag light, ABS & brake light and stall. Restarted with a boosterafter cooling . Back to Ford tomorrow AM. Would like to give them some clues.......

 

Checking the forum the following seem to be potentially implicated :unsure:

* Load reduction relay

* Crank position Sensor

* Earth Point

* main Supply Relay 30

* ? Alternator.

 

Has anyone else come up against such massive failure, and can anyone help me narrow it down (or translate the above list into French (or German). :(

 

Many thanks

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Well, you have my sympathies but I don't know the cause; could be that something got disturbed when the clutch etc was changed. May be something very simple but sounds like something is draining the electrics and reducing the battery voltage which then causes all the other woes. Could be totally unrelated alternator fault ? Can you get the charging voltage checked when the engine is running? Also check battery voltage when engine is first switched off, then in the morning before you start up.

[Topbloke]

could possibly be an earth problem, is there a earth strap on the gearbox, was the battery removed to get at the topbolts for the g/box has the main earth lead not been tightenend/dirty where it bolts to the chassis/ engine

[Sharanfx]

Sounds like a earth problem with that many faults.

 

As a tempoary fix you can get some earth straps and bolt them directly to the (-ve) terminal and then to the engine/gearbox and one to the chassis at a different points to the originals.

This has been a quick get you going fix that I have used in the past and will last untill you can get it into a retailer with no problems.

 

Carefully inspect the main earth from the battery to the gearbox as these have a tendancy to break down.

 

Hope this helps and you can continue with your holiday. :blink: