NeroSei
New member
(If this is too long for you, there's a TLDR at the end.)
It started as a lovely day. I was coming back from work (Cambridgeshire) to home (Greater Manchester) via Sollihull to pick up some eBay bits for my brothers' Seicento.
A bit of history. My car's a 56 M-Jet Sporting. It's a reluctant starter. Always starts 1st time but most mornings it's after a few cranks and with a cloud of white smoke. It also had the sound of a slipping belt, but it was all checked when serviced a month ago and it got a clean bill of health...
Anyway, before I got to Sollihull I stopped for a coffee and a wee. When I got back into the car, Blue&Me had reset. I thought it odd, but put it down to being a one off and carried on my way. In Sollihull I loaded up the car with the eBay purchases and started up again, minutes later a faint burning/smokey smell started wafting into the cabin. Alarmed I immediately pulled over, whipped open the bonnet and had a good whiff.... Nothing.
I looked all the car and found no trace of burning, so got back in and carried on home. The smell remained but didn't worsen, but then the battery light appeared on the dashboard. Uh oh! From then on things went from bad to worse. Every time I came to a standstill, the steering wheel felt locked in place, but would release when I set off.
After 10 miles, the radio turned itself off. After 20, it unlocked itself. From then on all the electric aspects of the car failed as the battery discharged. By the last 20 miles of my journey I had no ABS, no ESR, no Power Steering, airbag failure and worse of all... No brake or indicator lights. (Only discovered that whilst on the driveway just now as the dash indicators continued to flash).
I would usually have pulled over. But my phone was dead and breakdown cover had lapsed, plus I rightly assumed that if I turned the car off it wouldnt be coming back on again.
So what do we think guys? Alternator dead? Auxiliary Belt gone? Air Con killing one of those two?! Either way I'm guessing it'll be an expensive job.
TLDR?! Grande Punto has a burning smell from the heater and the battery discharges resulting in an awful drive home without any electrics.
It started as a lovely day. I was coming back from work (Cambridgeshire) to home (Greater Manchester) via Sollihull to pick up some eBay bits for my brothers' Seicento.
A bit of history. My car's a 56 M-Jet Sporting. It's a reluctant starter. Always starts 1st time but most mornings it's after a few cranks and with a cloud of white smoke. It also had the sound of a slipping belt, but it was all checked when serviced a month ago and it got a clean bill of health...
Anyway, before I got to Sollihull I stopped for a coffee and a wee. When I got back into the car, Blue&Me had reset. I thought it odd, but put it down to being a one off and carried on my way. In Sollihull I loaded up the car with the eBay purchases and started up again, minutes later a faint burning/smokey smell started wafting into the cabin. Alarmed I immediately pulled over, whipped open the bonnet and had a good whiff.... Nothing.
I looked all the car and found no trace of burning, so got back in and carried on home. The smell remained but didn't worsen, but then the battery light appeared on the dashboard. Uh oh! From then on things went from bad to worse. Every time I came to a standstill, the steering wheel felt locked in place, but would release when I set off.
After 10 miles, the radio turned itself off. After 20, it unlocked itself. From then on all the electric aspects of the car failed as the battery discharged. By the last 20 miles of my journey I had no ABS, no ESR, no Power Steering, airbag failure and worse of all... No brake or indicator lights. (Only discovered that whilst on the driveway just now as the dash indicators continued to flash).
I would usually have pulled over. But my phone was dead and breakdown cover had lapsed, plus I rightly assumed that if I turned the car off it wouldnt be coming back on again.
So what do we think guys? Alternator dead? Auxiliary Belt gone? Air Con killing one of those two?! Either way I'm guessing it'll be an expensive job.
TLDR?! Grande Punto has a burning smell from the heater and the battery discharges resulting in an awful drive home without any electrics.
