Whacky electrical issues....

L

lacroupade

Veteran
Set off for a three-hour drive, roof down, from Abingdon back to Llandovery last night, only to find the heater wasn't working on anything but stone cold. Aircon was fine and everything else worked hunk-dory.

Water level was good and pipes into bulkhead were hot so I suspected either faulty heater valve or in-car thermostat (not sure where it even is - in the rotary switch???).

Being a hard man (like all roadster drivers LOL) I made it all the way to Abergavenny where I decided to undertake some checks in the Waitrose car park after stocking up on goodies ('civilisation' any further West is basically Morrisons :cry: ).

Based on my diagnosis I favoured the heater valve, which I assume to be electrically operated, and since I had no fuse plan handy, I went through the entire fuse box removing first the 5amp, then 7.5amp, then all the 10 amp fuses - all of them were good but I noticed some were a lot tighter to pull than others. Put it all back together and fired her up and bingo, hot air the rest of the way!

Reached home after another hour, put roof up but then noticed that 'auto windows up' wasn't working when you held on to the 'roof up' button. :(

Went to bed peeved but bugger me, this morning everything was working properly; windows and heater!

Well that was grindingly boring post wasn't it - but hopefully anyone else getting such wierd problems won't worry quite as much as they might have now! :thumbsup:
 
How old is the car battery? Electrical gremlins always occur when the battery is dying. Not that I say that it would be the case here, just a starting point.
 
pvr said:
How old is the car battery? Electrical gremlins always occur when the battery is dying. Not that I say that it would be the case here, just a starting point.
Click to expand...

Well TBH my battery is pretty shagged after last years six month abandonment in the field :oops: . Getting round to biting the bullet for a new one....but just seemed odd that it took removing fuses to fix it....oh well. PVR right again..... :oops:
 
Just had a new battery delivered for my X5 today from performancebatteries.co.uk as it dropped a cell and made the whole electronics go ape.

£30 less than Halfords for the same spec and came with 4 year warranty - if you're out looking
Free delivery and arrived next day which saved me getting out of bed :roll:
 
CJ - did you go for the Bosch Silverline? Seems to be the favourite choice of X5 drivers.

Only point with that one was the required closing of an evaporation point to avoid water getting in the boot.
 
pvr said:
CJ - did you go for the Bosch Silverline? Seems to be the favourite choice of X5 drivers.

Only point with that one was the required closing of an evaporation point to avoid water getting in the boot.
Click to expand...

I'm a cheapskate like Lacroupade and went for the Varta. It's got venting fitted and a 4 year warranty
 
Varta are good compared to some of the cr*p around. I figure with a 4 year warranty that will see the X5 out ofr me as it will be 14 years old by then

For my 4x4's I use twin Optima yellow tops or twin yellow and red. Now they are serious batteires with 2000 cca the pair. Coupled to 200 amp alternators I rarely get a flat battery :)
 
I did think about sticking a redtop in the Zed but as they tend to be high in crankling amps but low in Amp hours I avoided it, given my 'transport mode' problems last year :cry:
 
CJ - which Varta did you go for? Just googling for best price delivered. :thumbsup:

PS @ pvr.....according to Wankypedia, the automotive battery division is now owned by Johnson Controls....do you know something we don't? Interesting to see that Varta was a german company and used to make batteries for the Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht - oops! Still, water under the bridge and all that! :)

EDIT: I also notice that my existing battery has a small pipe connected from the top of the side of the battery to the side of the battery well.....I assume some kind of venting system that becomes unnecessary if I replace with a Varta? :?
 
Yes my Varta has Johnson controls stamped on it
Pope is a vent pipe and on the X5 plugs into a tube in the battery box.

Not sure which model as I'm travelling but was £89 delivered Inc 4 year warranty
 
cj10jeeper said:
Yes my Varta has Johnson controls stamped on it
Pope is a vent pipe and on the X5 plugs into a tube in the battery box.

Not sure which model as I'm travelling but was £89 delivered Inc 4 year warranty
Click to expand...

Sounds like the E44 then - right on the button, cheers.
 
lacroupade said:
Let me know where you got your £89 delivered? I can't get below about £96 delivered and £7 would buy a lot of Smarties :oops:
Click to expand...

That was for an X5, so woudl have expected the price to be similar for the Zed being a smaller battery and lower CCA.

Funnily I have an unused quality battery or the Z4 that I purchased 18 months ago and stored it in my warehouse as a spare for my 4x4 after I did the quad exhaust conversion. Never used it and has a 3 or 4 year warranty. Open to offers if you're interested?
 
Thanks for the kind offer but my local garage has got me one on order for Monday as I was getting a bit desperate - starting was getting a bit wuh-wuh-wuh..... :(

I told them if they could match the internet price plus a couple of quid they could supply, and they did bless 'em!
 
Ah, at least it proves that the battery was the most likely cause of your other gremlins though. :thumbsup:
 
pvr said:
Ah, at least it proves that the battery was the most likely cause of your other gremlins though. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

LOL - on the plus side, its the first new bit I've had to buy in 38k/4.5 years of happy ragtopping! :)

Well, thats if you discount the rear springs I've got to go and buy next week :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom