Strange electrical problem

[Pedro]

Hi all

I have a 2003 3.0 z4 with 95k miles on the clock. I have owned the car for a year and other than the starter motor being replaced about 3 weeks ago, there have been no issues

I was driving home tonight and all of a sudden about 6+ warning lights flashed on, the instrument cluster flickered and the trip mileage and clock reset to zero, the car still drove fine but there was a bit of a burning smell, I pulled over. I could not make out where the smell was coming from and there was no smoke etc. I turned the car on and let it run for a few minutes and all seemed ok, I drove carefully home, about 5 miles and it seemed fine.

The only thing that was different to normal was I had just gone over about 3 speed bumps, could this be a coincidence or do you think there was an electrical short or bad earth etc caused by the speed bumps?

Any ideas?

Cheers in advance

Pedro

 

[Chris_D]

Tricky one.
Have u checked battery connections are clean and secure? Smell could be arcing from loose battery cable. Have a shuftyaround the battery compartment and check for scorching on underside of bootfloor panel.
Scan for codes too.

 

[Anonymous]

Battery or alternator buddy

 

[Pedro]

Thanks for the replies. I replaced battery about 3 months ago, had a check and connections look ok, is there any way to check if the alternator has gone bad other than multimeter?

 

[Chris_D]

May look ok but do a thorough inspection and clean of the battery terminals and cable clamps. Wire brush and bicarb solution.
Mm method for alternator check is best method. Get urself an mm if u dont already have one and look for 13v or above from the battery while engine is on with lights, aircon, radio working.
If you get any voltage drop ur alternator is on the way out.

 

[Pedro]

Well I think I found the problem! Tried to start the car to check alternator voltage and it was just clicking, no turning over. Had a check of the new starter motor and it looks like there has been a small fire. Will need to get it looked at to see if it was a wiring fault or failed part

Cheers

Pedro