Electrical Fault In The Er34?

[8110]

I had a weird experience on my ER34 yesterday night.

While waiting at the lights, the electronics went dead. Headlights (taillight too I suppose), meter lights and the audio unit. It went dead for a second or two but the engine is still running.

Afterwhich, everything gained back power and as per normal. My check engine and fasten seatbelt warning lights remain lighted for about 5 secs before turning off.

This is really weird and worrisome. Am afraid that suddenly while driving everything went dead on me.

The above happened twice yesterday nite.

[colgf]

I had a weird experience on my ER34 yesterday night.

While waiting at the lights, the electronics went dead. Headlights (taillight too I suppose), meter lights and the audio unit. It went dead for a second or two but the engine is still running.

Afterwhich, everything gained back power and as per normal. My check engine and fasten seatbelt warning lights remain lighted for about 5 secs before turning off.

This is really weird and worrisome. Am afraid that suddenly while driving everything went dead on me.

The above happened twice yesterday nite.

I can only suggest your battery terminals , remove both & give a good clean with wire brush & the battery posts. Ck your -ve earth lead from the battery to body mount point is secure , another cause could be your voltage regulator which is inside the back of the alternator, can be replaced separately though. Have you washed down your engine bay lately- could be water in the main wiring loom/box area???? Good Luck....

[8110]

Just some update. Today more weird stuff happened.

1) On the way to work this morning. The speakers went dead. My headunit is still playing but there are no power to the amp and thus no sound from the speakers. Have yet to determined whether the amp is fried or the fuse is blown.

2) During noon time, similar thing as the above happened BUT this time the engine went dead. The first time, I'm idling at the lights and everything shut itself down. Give the car a crank and it restarted. Later it went dead again and I can't crank. Pop the hood and fiddle with the - terminal and are able to restart it.

Am dead worried that the engine will go dead while I'm driving on the road.

Anyway, just took a look at the terminal. With the engine on, I removed the - terminal. Engine still runs. Does that mean my alternator is a-ok and are charging as per normal?

I cleaned the - terminal and tighten back both the + and - termimal and hope all is well.

colgf, nope I did not wash the engine bay.

[Sumo]

Dont remove you battery terminals whilst your car is running - you have a posibility that your voltage may spike to 17-18 volts and blow something up.

An Alternator will not cause the problem you are describing. Its more likely to be a power supply issue. Check your main power going into your fuse distrobution block.

There is a possiblity that one cell in your battery may be playing up with a fracture in it. Your problem is not common, and is hard to diagnose over the net.

Cheers

Sumo

[nuffsaid]

Battery issue, alarm maybe, or a short circuit somewhere.

They are my guesses.

[8110]

Sumo, the fuse distribution block is a possible problem. I dunno for sure.

nuffsaid, battery shouldn't cause that. And my car has no alarm.

[nuffsaid]

It happened once in my car, driving along, come to a set of lights, the car was about to stall, and then it did. Started it up fine and drove again.

I went home and just as I got in the driveway it did it again, and then it was like the battery went dead.

Upon closer inspection looked like the stereo system had a short somewhere or was using a fault amplifier fuse or something (those big ones). Put in a new one and havent had a problem since. I also noticed that the power supply to the alarm wasnt connected tightly so maybe when the alarm detected power issues it just immobilised the car?

[8110]

Ok the speakers went dead issue is partly solved. Think my amp has some problems and it was sent for repair already.

BUT

on the car going dead issue. It's still around. Some times, the electricals flicker a bit and came back alive. Just now as an experiment, I flash a couple of times, and the car seem to be drained of power. Everything went dead and flicker about. With the flash pro-longed, the engine went dead.

I had to give the battery terminals a knock to be able to restart back the car. After restarting, I did the flash trick again and there's no difference.

Damn what the f- - k is wrong with my car???