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:( what a night (Starting Problems)

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:( what a night (Starting Problems)

My girlfriends golf mk1 clipper cabs has been eating batteries lately so i decided to try and find the cause last night.

On the afternoon, i had noticed that the well at the back of the engine was full of water, because one of the drainage holes was full of twigs and the other was blocked up by a redundant alarm that was fitted before we bought it. A quick poke in the hole with a screwdriver saw the release of a whole  load of water, which we just left to drain.

Armed with my multimeter, i set about trying to find a drain on any circuits.

The alternator and battery read the correct voltages at all stages and there were no loss in voltage whilst the car was off  :dontknow:

I decided to remove the redundant alarm as it was rotting away in the well at the back of the engine and it started to spark (still connected to the fuse box).

It was too dark to disconnect the cables from the fuse box so i taped them up and left them in the engine bay for now.

I put my weight on the front car mat to get up from under the dash and i was soaked through with water  :(

It seems that all of the water that i had "drained" earlier on had gone into the car and it took us 2 hours just to get the puddles out from beneath the carpets.

It was midnight when i decided enough was enough and we tried to move the car so that we could close the garage, and now it wont even start  :evil:

It tries to turn over but it looks like the spark has gone, you can smell the petrol coming through as normal but it just wont fire.

I have taken off earth leads, cleaned them up and put them back on tightly, i have mess about under the dash board (whilst trying to find where the old alarm was wired to and we played in our golf paddling pool all night.

I am out of ideas at the moment, any suggestions please ??

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old alarm most likely had an imobiliser on it which obviously was working.

when you removed the alarm you have removed the contact so the ignition has no power now.

trace the wires from the alarm back into the car till you find the one's that are connected into the ignition circuit. there should be 2. check them and then remove them and reconect the wire that was split to put it in.

(or wrap the 2 wires together to see if it works first 8O )

depending on what alarm it is and if it has 1 colour wires or not i think the imobiliser wires are yellow :dontknow:

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The alarm was the first thing that popped into my head, and i even at one stage got the cables that i had chopped out of the bin ready to re-connect them, although the cables i removed looked to be redundant and were terminated into a plug that was doing nothing apart.

I will try and trace them back tonight to see if it is that or not, although the car does have a cobra immobiliser which is working fine  :?  (was not part of this alarm, and was fitted seperatley before we bought the vehicle)

I wasnt sure if i should be checking the coil pack, dizzy, leads, fusebox, etc ???

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if it's got a second imobiliser on it you may have caused a short to kill that when you got that spark. (had it happen on a 205 the imobilser was hidden and there was an alarm which i removed)

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I will have a look later, i will have to remove the whole fuseboard to get the cables out from the engine bay as the plum that put it all in has routed the cables in such a strange way.

Hopefully it will be something simple  :(

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*** UPDATE ***

The girlfriend called out her breakdown cover people and they have traced it back to three (3) wires have come off the fuseboard that are related to the coil pack. (When i was trying to remove the old alarm wiring, i must have pulled the cables off by accident)

Has anyone got any idea of where and how to get the cables back on to the fuseboard, or is it a specialist job only ?

 :dontknow:

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all wires into the the fuse box connect with plugs. read cudds post on fuse box. matter of figureing out which connectors and putting the wire (asumming it still has the connector on) back into the plug. if the wire has come away from the plug its a matter of carefully removing the connector from the plug (using very small screwdrivers) soldering the wire back onto the plug then refitting it back into the right place.

hope that helps.

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It helps loads, i am ok with a soldering iron so i am hoping that it the cables have snapped off the "spade" making them easier to find.

The chap who came to look at it said that the cables were very brittle and that because i wasnt particularly carefull that the cables came off.

He has temporarily installed a new cable from the fuseboard to the coil pack to get us running again, which will need to be removed when i have sorted out the original wiring.

Thanks for your help, i'll let you know how i get on  :)

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i haven't read all the posts, but from a general jist, i'd get a replacemnt fusebox as my i had wate get in my cab, and it played havoc with the electrical bits. also check the condition of your relay's to see if they have been corroded, as thi can cause other problems furthre down the line as i have discovered.

i may have repeated something someone else has said, but if not hope this helps.

here for a good time, not a long time

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Any/all advice is greatly appreciated.

You can never have too much knowledge when it comes to mk1's  :lol:

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you can but then you turn into paul C. that guy spends way to much time playing with cars. :lol:  :lol:  

only joking paul you are a fountain of knowledge though.

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The girlfriend tried to start the golf again this mornign so that she could get to her new job (1st day) and the battery was flat again  :(

We have absolutley no idea why the batteries keep going flat and i dont really know how to check if a circuit is draining them.

Any ideas please as she really needs this running to get her to her new job.

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I'm no expert and TBH there are guys on here that know a lot more about mk1s than me, but here's my 2p worth.

1. Can you jump start the car?
2. You say it's eating batteries, do you mean it's flattening the one or going through new ones? If it's the latter then it must be something to do with the charging circuit.
3. If after a long run you top and leave it for 30mins, will it turn over? If it does but it's flat by the morning you have a voltage drain. Tricky! The best way to suss that is to remove fuses to determine which compoent is leaking voltage during the night.

May seem obvious, but with stuff like this you may need to call it a day and get an auto electrican to look at it - will cost money but save you going mad!! Do you leave anywhere near Aylesbury?

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bytor said

I'm no expert and TBH there are guys on here that know a lot more about mk1s than me, but here's my 2p worth.

1. Can you jump start the car? yes
2. You say it's eating batteries, do you mean it's flattening the one or going through new ones? If it's the latter then it must be something to do with the charging circuit. flattening the battery that is on there
3. If after a long run you top and leave it for 30mins, will it turn over? If it does but it's flat by the morning you have a voltage drain. Tricky! The best way to suss that is to remove fuses to determine which compoent is leaking voltage during the night. it will start after half an hour but not after 24 hours

May seem obvious, but with stuff like this you may need to call it a day and get an auto electrican to look at it - will cost money but save you going mad!! we did call one out, but he was hopeless and expensive for what he didnt do

Do you leave anywhere near Aylesbury? no

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To check if there's a constant drain on your battery, remove one of the clamps then fit a multimeter IN SERIES in its ammeter configuration (many of them need the red lead plugged into a different socket). This will tell you if there is a drain or not (on a Golf, there should be almost none, only really the clock which needs any power when the car isn't running).

If you DO have a drain, start pulling fuses one by one to eliminate it. It could be:

boot light (cabbys have them)
clock
radio
immobiliser/alarm
etc

If you DONT have a drain, then its probably a poor battery which is unable to keep its charge - get the battery tested and replaced if needs be. Its unlikely you'll have the proper tool for checking a battery, basically it measures the voltage when you make it supply a large current. You can do a rough check by checking its voltage across the terminals during starting (needs 2 people).

Do you have +12V at the coil?

Do you have a spark?

Or is the starter motor not spinning/not spinning fast enough?

                                

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bytor said

  we did call one out, but he was hopeless and expensive for what he didnt do

Yet another "professional" who can't do his job, and needs a banana throwing at him - no wonder all our jobs are being taken by the Polish/Romanians/Bulgarians!!!!!!

                                

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Its defiantely an ongoing battle, the battery is fine as long as the car is started every day.

The car does have an immobiliser, but it always has and we never had any problems before  :dontknow:

She had a new stereo at christmas, so it might be that ?

I have brought her one of those solar power trickle chargers, which can only help, i hope

I have also found a device which claims to turn off all power to the car when the voltage gets too low leaving enough charge to start the car, its called a battery brain and as soon as i can get hold of a new battery clamp, i will be fitting it.

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A battery should hold its charge for a couple of weeks at least, even with low-current devices drawing some power over time. So I still think you have a current leak or a dud battery.

                                
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