Intermittent (total) electrical failure (1.4 Petrol)

lsdc

Member
Dear A2OC'ers

2002 1.4 Petrol - recently acquired

Chronic symptoms:
have found hazard warning lights come on on their own on a couple of times
power steering occasionally drops out, but can be restored by restarting car (worrying)
stereo headhunt loses power every now and again, and restarts.
clock has lost time....

Acute symptoms:
Opened car using remote; when trying to start, quick flash of lights on dash then.... Total electrical shutdown
Car totally dead and then "at some point" decides to come alive again (i.e. dash/cabin lights come on)

Car will start, but then has died spontaneously within a few meters (I don't think I stalled car - its just shutdown totally - to deadweight status) (again rather worrying). After this, car seems to be run OK (I was worried about shutdown when driving on open road...)

So, far the car has come back at some point, but it is a bit like playing roulette.

Now, as the battery seems to work/crank fine when the car comes back to life, I infer that the battery is ok and holding charge (a cheap battery charger indicated (a nominal) 3/4 charge when quickly connected up. Is this weak inference safe?

Disclosure: the car does not seem to have the right size battery, at least one which will fit/mount correctly in the available space - its a tad "loose", but not free to wander. The connectors appear tight, at least.

Do you think this as simple as a dodgy battery/connection, or does the cluster of symptom suggest something else?
(On doing a forum search, the other potential factor could be a dodgy earth somewhere...?)

Sorry, it this is too vague, or lacks initiative: my confidence in addressing issues is currently low (perhaps not helped by some recent plumbing "episodes"...., but that's another story).

I could just buy another battery, but the current one looks fairly new and seems to be holding charge and cranking ok, so I am just holding fire on that route.

Any pointers suggestions would be much appreciated.

Many thanks

Leo
 
There are a lot of "go to" posts for electrical gremlins. Many start with checking the earth straps - at each footwell in the front cabin and behind the passenger headlight. GL.
 
thank you for the suggestions

Today I took another look at the connections to the battery and they seem to have worked a bit loose (though there's not that much slack around the terminals to start with.
As the battery is the wrong size, it cannot be secured in place with the mounting bolts - so perhaps the movement of the car is gradually loosening the connections through vibration.
Perhaps this is the root of the big stickers saying replace battery with model of the same size !!??
I will see how things play out....
 
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