Technical Wacky MkII electrical problem...

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Technical Wacky MkII electrical problem...

farmerwill09

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Hello All,

I have a bit of a puzzle with my 2001 Punto MkII, it goes like this;

The horn stopped working a few days ago, but was quickly fixed by just taking apart from spade clip connection on the -ve terminal and putting it back on. Sorted.

The next event may or may not be related.

A day later I jump in the car (it's raining) put the windscreen wipers on- they are sluggish. Lights are turned on at the stalk = rear windscreen wiper turns itself on. On later inspection the next morning the following happens;

(All systems off) then....

Hazards on = Rear windscreen Wiper turns On itself ( from now on abbrv to RWO)
Indicator on (left and right) = RWO
Front wipers on (& sluggish) = RWO
Sidelights on = all ok
Headlights on = RWO and no lights actually turn on.

All sorts of issues here as you can see. The battery is good, alternator charging fine, no fuses blown or bulbs out. Indicator stalks are working incrementally as they should do. All rear lights seem to be working fine but the front lights are getting confused - the sidelights are blinking (dimly) with the indicators. No headlights or Full beam lights at all.

So far I have;
-checked all fuses
-tested 2 earths on engine below battery (+ve battery terminal to earth reads around 12v) I think I've done that correctly.

Help?!

Regards,

Will :bang:

Long time reader, first time poster.
 
Faulty stalks?

on the later' puntos the indicator stalk and wiper stalk are married up
as a full comm's units, so if one short's it can feed back,

stuff like the Flashdash with added silicone is normaly the killer of these.
 
because cleaning earths cheap - easy and quick todo

I've had a quick sckower over the wiring diagrams
Lights and wipers use 2 earthing points
EP1 - Gearbox
EP6 - Boot Earth

Since you said you've done gearbox to body one - thats obvs not the problem
Next i'd try the boot one - Passenger side, under the carpet on the back of the boot

Id be looking to make sure there is no water in there either.....

ziggy
 
Hello,

Firstly thanks for the replies.

Update:

So as you so rightly pointed out - cleaning the earths are free so I did that on the earth point on the gearbox and the in line earth below the battery box. Box were in pretty good shape. The earth in the boot (passenger side and on the tailgate area) looked as good as new - no water or hint of corrosion.

That said are we looking at an earth fault somewhere else or the stalks (didn't know they were connected). With headlights on I'm getting 11v on the back of the bulb but they aren't coming on - filament is intact.

Thanks in advance for the help - all invaluable.

Will
 
I would check the black earth wire in the plugs to the rear light clusters. Indicators draw a relatively large amount of current and if it can't find a good earth it will switch other things on by the back door, usually the other rear lights - the so called 'disco effect'
 
Hi Brendan,

Thanks, it's the front lights really. The only issue at the back is the rear wiper that goes off when the hazards/headlights/front wiper is turned on. No disco effect at the back - all lights functioning as normal.

It's the front where there's an issue - headlights not on, sidelights (the tiny ones at the base of the cluster) on with indicators.

I would like to know if there's a common earth/relay/switches to all the above that are going crazy.
 
There is a earth in the right footwell shared by the hazard switch and the indicator multi function switch. The stalk internals can get dirty with age and can be recovered with a spray of contact cleaner. You might hear a buzzing in the stalk or feel a slight warming in some cases.
 
SUCCESS!

Well done all, cleaned with silicone spray and after a while she came back to life. I also now have clean earths all other the place & now a bit more about my Punto.

Many thanks to you guys, you are providing an invaluable service, I wonder how many thousands you've saved!

Until next time...

Will
 
Do you know which one you think it was?
If you have a meter try sticking one lead in the coolant and the other on the block. More than 300mV means the coolant has lost it's corrosion inhibitors - fresh coolant mine is about 90mV. Now try it with the motor running - if it goes up it means currents are getting back to earth the 'wrong' way and as well as wacky problems it will eat the coolant system from the inside if it climbs over 300mv. Pulling different fuses can help pinpoint the cct at fault.
Obviously you have to switch things on progressively to provoke it.
 
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