Electrics gone haywire! - advice needed...

[codlord]

Bit cheeky this one as it's not a problem with my Surf but my other car but I have tried on that owners forum without any joy and was wondering if anyone here can offer any advice as I am now desperate as the surf has died again and I am now carless...

I have a Mitsubishi FTO and when I went to set the alarm it went off and when I turned on the ignition the interior lights and door open warning light were flickering with a ticking sound coming from the stereo - also flickering! Started engine and it's running very rough. Disconnected the stereo and ticking/flickering stops but still have engine running badly problem. Also when setting the alarm it beeps at me indicating that doors/bonnet are open when they are not. Tried disabling alarm but problems still persist.

Checked all fuses - all o.k.

Basically, does anyone have any idea how to track down this electrical problem? Or narrow it down to one of the circuits? Can I check for a bad earth - if so how?

Any help appreciated...

[rich]

Hi Simon,

With that much going wrong I would look at the negative earths from the battery to the body and to the engine.

Sounds like an earth problem to me or could be the battery terminals on the positive.

EDIT: Do you have a multimeter that has resistance on it? This is the only accurate way of checking the resistance between the battery terminal and the body / engine

Rich.

[codlord]

If it was battery terminals wouldn't everything be going wrong? - Exterior lights, indicators, wipers, dash lights etc all seem o.k.

I have got loads of settings on the multimeter including resistance but don't know how to interpret the results - i.e. what resistance is "good" and what is "bad" - what should I be looking for and where should I be looking?

Thanks

[Guest]

If it was battery terminals wouldn't everything be going wrong? - Exterior lights, indicators, wipers, dash lights etc all seem o.k.

I have got loads of settings on the multimeter including resistance but don't know how to interpret the results - i.e. what resistance is "good" and what is "bad" - what should I be looking for and where should I be looking?

Thanks

If you first off connect one terminal of the multimeter to the earth post then put the other one on the bodywork near the end of the earth strap first off that will check the connection from battery to earth - this will test the earth strap itself, the connection on the battery and the connection on the bodywork. Low resistance is good high resistance is bad. Set the multimeter on 10 ohms, then 100ohms, then 1000 ohms etc. You should then see the reading. A reading of 1000 ohms means you have a high resistance between the battery and the body which is bad (resistance means just that, resistance to current flow). A reading of 0 ohms or close means a dead short, i.e. a very good connection.

Cheers