This little problem has cropped up before and I thought I had it solved - obviously not
.What happens is this...Open car door (a good start), see that the interior light comes on fine. Insert key and turn, all usual lights come up on dash, volts looking fine. Turn key to start, starter goes ugh..click, then all the lights go off and the car is completely dead. Everything is dead, it is as if the battery is completely disconnected. The remote locking doesn't work, the interior lights don't work, the boot release, and so on
.Then, leave it for a while, go back (having not touched anything), and it starts fine...weird or what?
My first thoughts were an internal battery fault or a major wiring problem. I checked the battery terminal posts and they are clean, the terminal fittings are nice and tight. The earth cable is clean where it bolts into the chassis, the chassis brass pad is clean, the bolt and washer is nice and bright. Last time this happened I thought it was the strap and so cleaned the gunky earth pad - it was not too good, and replaced the bolt, etc. That seemed to cure the problem...but perhaps not. However, this problem has not happened for quite a while now.
The starter has been recently re-furbed at a local auto-electrician and turns fine, no nasty noises, etc. the car usually fires after the first turn or two, the volts read 12 not running, and 14 when running, so that looks OK.
If it was the ignition switch I would wonder why all the auxiliary circuits go dead too as they are not routed through the switch. If it was the starter I would expect only that to click and the lights to dim - not go out entirely.
Has anyone else had a similar problem, or could shed some light here? I am a fully-qualified electronic engineer and at the moment this has me a bit stumped.
Back to pouring over the wiring diagrams again...
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