HELP!!! This car is ruining my life!

Have you checked what state the gear box and chassis earths are in, that clip on youtube sounds like what happened with mine, the earths were shot and the battery only had enough charge to turn it over and that was all. Have you had the battery checked?

Not had it checked but I did give it a full charge and it has always previously been as strong as an ox.  Where abouts are these earths and what am I looking for?  Just a good connection with no interference, well insulated cable and no breaks?  It is the sort of thing it probably is

Chassis earth is under the air filter on bolted to the chassis leg and connected to the earth terminal on the battery (trace it from here to find locations) depends on the age of the car as to the style of the cables or cable, Mine was one long cable that went to chassis leg and gearbox. A good indicator of what state they are in is if the one on the gearbox looks green it might need a good clean or replacement. My cable had hardly any insulation, and my battery was an all singing dancing heavy duty that was less than two years old and kept in a garage, but the cable was shot and it wrecked the battery over time. Hope this helps.

Try someone elses battery or get someone to jumpstart it. Both your youtube vids sound just like mine did 2 month ago.

Will do  Thanks for the advice!!!  I owe a lot of drinks on this one

Right I'm checking the earths and cleaning all the terminals etc.  I'll be honest, I don't really know what I'm looking for…broken brown cables not connected properly, that kind of thing?  Also on the negative battery connection there looks to be a bit you slide a connection on to…with nothing connected to it.  I can't see any wires nearby that are not connected so what should go on this…if anything.



In happier news I managed to finally get the old fuel filter off!!!

Follow the main wire from the earth terminal, it goes under the air filter box and is bolted to the chassis leg. From there it goes to the gearbox. if it looks to be brittle and dirty with green residue on. Have you had the battery tested?

thats just a handy spare spade connection, not used from factory

The earth wire is the one screwed in to the termina connector.

I've tried following that wire and all I can see it goes to is the headlights!!  I'll get another look in a mo, but I have just discovered this broken connection!!!



Which goes into this…



It's located behind the 5th injector if that helps.  Doesn't look like a new break to me but still something to fix at least

The earth wire for gearbox and chassis is about 6mm thick and like I said is screwed in to the battery connector.

aux air valve, it sorts out the idle while the car is warming up. shouldn't effect starting, though if that wire shorted to ground it would pop the fuel pump fuse

Ha, so that big old cable's an earth too!!!  Even if she never goes again (which she bloody will!) I'm getting my money's worth of learning out of her.  That cable seems fine…I've cleaned all the connections again just incase.  Battery is back on charge.

Well I have a feeling that cable's been snapped since I got her as I have had the fuel pump fuse go randomly from time to time n just assumed it was age old pump n changed that!!!  On the note of fixing these cables…best way?  Is it just the crimpy things you put each end of the cable in?

On a side note I also found this…


Is my guess of fog lights right…as I never got them working so just switch to single light grill.  If so, where the 'eck does it go as I cannot see anything near it to plug to.  Dead excited if I can get them working though….fogs for the winter….style for the summer haha

(Oh and I am aware this is all off on a tangent from the problem that she won't start!!!  This is what happens when I do anything!)

The only other thing I can suggest is to have the battery tested, or get some one to jump start it.

I've got a multimeter…could I just do it?

yep

Just check for 12v yeah?

Odd….around 13v!  It started showing 13.4…and then each time I checked went down a touch.

yep