Right that's it I've had enough.......

[Wingnut]

My intermittent fault that meant the car would die all of a sudden (left me stranded on numerous occasions ) has now become permenant.At least it means that I can try and diagnose what the problem is.

It appears I am not getting any power to the coil so I tried tracing back. I am still not getting anything to the wire that enters the ingition amp but I am getting volts out of the the ignition switch when it turns over. What is between the ingnition switch and the ignition amp? I guess maybe fuses and relays but of all the fuses I can locate all are fine and there are a load of relays under the dash so don't know which is which (no manual ) but there is clicking going on under there when the key is turned.

Please somebody tell me I am missing sopmething simple. I want to sort this myself rather than pay someone a fortune to diagnose an obvious fault.

[Lotus-e-Clan]

Please somebody tell me I am missing sopmething simple. I want to sort this myself rather than pay someone a fortune to diagnose an obvious fault.

I haven't been following the thread so you might have already checked these:

Have you checked all the earth wires for poor connections to coil amp etc?

I assume the starter turns over(?) so the earth to engine will be OK.

Soldered joints in the AMP can "dry-out". - change AMP.

Bypass (disconnect) the rev limiter completely as this can cause probs (same sort of reason). - reconnect if no difference - best to have a rev limiter.

[Pete Boole]

What year is your car Wingnut? I'll have a look at my wiring diagrams.

Pete

[alanmoss]

I had an intermittent which went "solid" which was traced to the wire from the distributor to the ignition amp. The wire had frayed inside the plug at the amp end and as it flexed caused intermittent problems. Then it snapped although externally this was not visible.

[Wingnut]

Pete, as per my sig it's a 90 SE.

I have confirmed that there is no power going to the amp (and as such nothing going from the amp to the coil). I had already tried everything forward of the amp (including replacing/removing the rev limiter). It was only now I have a permenant fault that I have been able to prove I have no power to the coil, rather than from the coil to the dizzy. Whilst it was intermittent I had to replace/check one thing at a time and hope it didn't happen again (very frustrating).

The problem is definately between the output of the ignition switch and the amp it's just that I don't know, and can't really trace, what is between the two .

Thanks in advance.

[Pete Boole]

Hi Wingnut

We may need to do this in stages! You say you have 12v at the ignition switch when the engine is turning over; do you have 12v on both the white wire (connected to the black and yellow wire of the ignition switch), and the white and red wire (connected to the black and white wire of the ignition switch)?

Pete

[Wingnut]

Yep. However when the engine is cranking it is more like 9.5v.

[Pete Boole]

Hi Wingnut

The white wire from the ignition switch (black and yellow on the switch itself) energises the ignition relay: This is a large relay (one of two) on a metal bracket behind the driver's footwell kick panel. The ignition relay controls the power to everything that only works with the ignition switch in position 1. If all these things are working, e.g. fuel pump, you can assume the relay is working. All these ignition-controlled circuits are fed by the relay via a big splice (all white wires) on the loom not too far from the pedal box earth binding post. This is the first place where you could lose the feed to the coil. It is probably easiest to check this by disconnecting the engine harness connector (12-pin Rists connector also behind the kick panel), and looking for 12v. This connector can be identified by looking for wires with these colours;

White
Black/grey
Brown/yellow
White/brown
Pink/blue
Green
White/grey
Green/blue
Purple/grey

Check for 12v at the white wire terminal. If you have 12v here, but not at the coil, the fault lies in the wire which goes from the engine harness connector to the coil, as there is nothing else in between!

Let us know how you get on!

Pete

[Wingnut]

cheers pete, sounds like a job 4 the weekend. Will let you know how i get on. Fingers crossed.

[Wingnut]

Well that has got to be the weirdest thing ever

Armed with Pete's advise, I decided I was going to crack this today or give in and call the mobile Auto Electrician. Checked where I was and wasn't getting power. Checked the Rists connector as suggested and was not finding anything amiss.

Followed the + supply from the coil back to the alarm box (the one with the sounder) and proved that I had power in but not out of the box. Thought that it must be something in the alarm that was knackered and wondered how to by-pass it. Whilst thinking I pull the cap off the key switch on the box to find it was switched off Found the key in the box of bits that came with the car and switched it on. Now getting power in and out and so to the coil. Car starts first time

Now nothing strange in that maybe but remember this had been an intermitent fault that became permenant and also I have never touched the alarm before let alone turned it on or off.

Totally confused but happy that it is now running again.

Anybody any thoughts on how this happened

[Markexel]

Alarms and imobalizers on cars can be more trouble than they are worth especially if its a poorly fitted aftermarket one!

Nobody takes any notice of them anyway they just keep people awake at night

I suppose if u want something an imobalizer is better or even somthing simple like a removable steering wheel

wonder if the switch has been makeing/breaking ? does the alarm work?

what happens if u turn it back to off?

Mark

[Wingnut]

Turn it off and no 12v out. Turn it on and it makes a beep but not heard it go off. I guess it runs off the central lockng. It is the factory fit alarm. I have an aftermarket immobiliser fitted but I had already proved that that wasn't the culprit.

Confused I am

[alanmoss]

Factory fit? Not sure that is right. Mine is a 1991 and no immobiliser or alarm as standard. Any one know better?

[Pete Boole]

Glad to hear you're sorted Wingnut.

The alarm/immobiliser was the first thing I ripped out when I bought mine!

Pete

[Wingnut]

I would rip mine out if I new what all the wires going into it did. That said I would probably be daft to now I seem to have it sorted as knowing me i would end up with another problem.

Off for a drive in the sunshine now to see if it breaks down on me again.

Await an update when it has