help!!! My car has died!!!

[Drewski]

Last night I tried starting my 172, lights etc came on but when turning the ignition all I got was a clunking sound. I jump started it and left it running for 5 minutes or so. All seemed ok….. then about 5 minutes into my journey, things started to die!! Firstly the cd player switched off, followed by the rear lights, I then had all sorts of lights on the dashboard flashing, the stop light, abs, service….followed by my side lights, main beams, indicators, even my hazards all not working! By this point I had loss of power from the car itself, when putting my foot down I would have little or no response. I managed to limp it onto a nearby carpark where I left it running for a few minutes, but was now beginning to overrev in idle. I turned the ignition off, and when trying to start it back up again it was lifeless. I just about managed to lock it, the indicators gave out a very weak flash. Any ideas what this could be!! Cars stranded at the moment! Cheers

 

[Drewski]

also incase its related..... in the days previous to this, the stop and battery light would randomly flash whilst driving, but i thought this was to do with a loose wire under the seat as i often get that with the abs light and when wriggling the wires around under the seat the light goes off.

 

[Rob_Willow]

Duff battery?

 

[Icarus83]

To me it sounds like you have issues with your battery, but the reason for the battery fail could be alternator failure, or lack of charging for some reason. The fact your head unit was affected and your external lights were dimming makes me think that, and that it isnt ECU management issues.

I had an old 106 Rallye, alternator had died and was running purely off of the battery (without my knowledge). Symptoms I saw were (in this order):

Firstly the head unit died,
Then the ECU warning light on the dash lit up,
The rev counter went mental.......flickering up and down at random.
Lumpy running and no power from engine
Misfires (no sparks on some cylinders)
Engine stall

Basically the lower the output voltage of the battery gets the worse it gets. Normal tickover with engine running the battery should be at about 12-15v (extra voltage coming from the alternator). With no charging i.e. alternator fail, you will see 12v or less.

My 106 would be able to start after 20min as the battery leveled itself out again as the battery was less than a month old.

Also if I then started the car again, with a multimeter across the terminals, the voltage would start at 12.0v and for every second the engine was running, the voltage would drop 0.1v until it reached about 9.5v where it gets too low for the engine to keep running.

This may not be the problem with your car, but it may help you to identify or eliminate what is wrong tho.......

Hope this helps,
Rob

 

[Icarus83]

Duff battery?

+1

 

[foxspeed]

stuffed battery first - easy to check out

then alternator next suspect - easy to check out

 

[Drewski]

thanks for the responses guys. to my knowledge the battery hasnt been changed from the original (its an 02 plate). I take it the first step is to get a new battery tried? would the RAC be able to tell me if the battery has gone?

 

[Jaffa182]

Battery is well fooked! This happend to mine, just bought a new battery and everythin went back to normal.

Jaff

 

[Drewski]

Many thanks for the help. Fingers crossed for the battery. I will see how i get on with that

 

[Icarus83]

Many thanks for the help. Fingers crossed for the battery. I will see how i get on with that

Most garages and shops/motor factors have a handheld tester which they plug onto the battery.......tells you instantly if its the battery that has died.

 

[Drewski]

The jokers that call themselves recovery people told me they would be 90 minutes! So i got a friend to jump my car, left it charging for 10 minutes (i was only 15 minutes away from home) and got the car back. Would this indicate that its the alternator if the battery has been able to gain enough of a charge from another car to get me home? Also when i tried starting it initally i heard a horrible grining noise (would this be the alternator?)

 

[Tobs]

will be what they have said alternator and battery failure

easy to test mate get a volt meter, stick it on 20Kv then stick it on the battery when the cars running, should read between 12.4-14.4 on idel, if any less then its a charging fault due to the alternator

the ecu needs a continuous stable voltage all the time as thats how sensors work. this is y its effecting the running of the engine because. All sensors do is change the voltage signal to the ecu, then the ecu will do its job in running the engine from viewing each sensor individually.

its how any computer works INPUT----Process----OUTPUT

 

[matty172cup]

a battery on a car is to just purely power the starter motor to get the engine going then the electrice of your car run off the battery but if the alternator is shagged and not producing 14v when you put a volt meter across the + and - poles then your car battery will die thus the problem of losing lights and stereo power

Matty