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Old 04-14-2006, 09:37 AM
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Iceman59718 Iceman59718 is offline
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serious electrical issues..... HELP PLEASE!

Hey guys. Let me just tell everyone the story to bring you up to speed. Sorry it's a little long, but I wanted to be as descriptive as possible to give you gurus out there any pertinent information that will hopefully help you to give me some ideas on this one.

The other night I was at the self service car wash and decided to use the engine wash setting. This may just be coincidental, but shortly after I left I started to notice some dash lights coming on dimly when the engine speed dropped down to idle. This was obviously the death of my alternator. I put a volt meter on it and wasn't even getting 12volts with the car running. I pulled off the negative cable and sure enough the car died. I did the alternator rewire modification about a month ago after I got the car, but I guess It was too late to save it. Do you think it's possible that washing the engine caused the alternator to short out? I did have the engine running at the time. Anyway, so I ordered a new alternator and was ready to consider it a done deal. This is were things get a bit hairy. I figured since I already had a new one ordered it couldn't hurt to pull the bad one, open it up, and look for any obvious things like bad motor brushes. Well, after trying for 2 hours to get the damn pulley bolt off I finally gave up, sprayed it out with electrical cleaner, blew it out with compressed air, and put it back in the car. I thought it might just be dirty contacts or something. You never know, you could get lucky. I put the meter back on it, and of course no such luck. So I was heading home on my lunch hour and I was accelerating up to speed and once I hit 70 the dash lights started getting really bright (i work nights by the way) and then everything went dead in this order dash lights, headlights stayed on for a few more seconds and the car was still running, then no headlights followed by the engine dying. I pulled into the first parking lot to find the fusible link had cooked. I was able to twist the broken ends back together and get the car restarted. I only had headlights and it must have took the fan relay with it as that was staying on permanently. I got back to work to check the fuses and found the clock fuse and RH fan relay toasted and the following fuses in the kick panel fuseblock: EGI unit/AT unit, Cruise/ABS, Meter/SRS lamp, and Illumi. I replaced all of the fuses and I am still having the following issues: blinkers come on but don't flash, hazards turn on but don't flash, air bag light is on, and for some reason whenever I replace the cruise fuse it blows as soon as the car is turned on. So I don't know what I did but any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I know about the relay for the flashers that's mounted on the lower steering column so I'll try checking that, but I was wondering if any of you veterans know of something centrally located that could have taken all these things out at once. I can't for the life of me figure out what would have caused the fusible link to cook like that. Is it possible that cleaning the alternator caused it to surge in one last big hoorah causing a voltage spike that wrecked havoc with my electrical system? Anyway, I'm going to try to go through all the relays, etc. this weekend. I was just hoping for a little direction. Sorry about the long post, but I can tend to be a bit wordy

Regards,

-Dave
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Old 04-14-2006, 04:51 PM
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Trevor Trevor is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Iceman59718
Hey guys. Let me just tell everyone the story to bring you up to speed. Sorry it's a little long, but I wanted to be as descriptive as possible to give you gurus out there any pertinent information that will hopefully help you to give me some ideas on this one. ----------------

------------------ Anyway, I'm going to try to go through all the relays, etc. this weekend. I was just hoping for a little direction. Sorry about the long post, but I can tend to be a bit wordy

Regards,

-Dave
Nasty problem Dave.

First -- The original problem was the alternator. The cause, engine washing with a conductive solution which damaged the diode network in the alternator.

Second ---You did the wrong thing by running the car with the battery disconnected. The voltagew will have gone sky high and with fauly diodes there will have been a strong AC component introduced onto the supply line.

Third ---You bypassed the fuse link, destroying the protection it afforded therefore restoring the damaging high current condition.


Four ---- N.B. You fitted the alternator so called "upgrade". I have here several times, pointed out the problems involved to no effect. This stupid mod. bypasses the alternator fuse. Result, the main link opened as a result of a very high and distructive ciurrent. The total resulting damage is difficult to ascertain.

Copnclusion. ---- AC spikes appear to have shot the blocking diodes in the cruise control/start inhibit circuit and probably others elsewhere.
It would appear that as yet you have not fitted a replacemant alternator. First remove the "alternator upgrade" and replace the alternator. Second, replace the main fuse link. Third, make sure the battery is connected and charged.

Important ---- Do not replace any fuses or the link, with other than the specified current rating, especially if they open (blow).

Start the car and carefully observe the results with fingers crossed. If you notice anything seriously astray, shut the engine down immediately. Report back the syptoms which remain.

You have my sympathy, Trevor.
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Last edited by Trevor; 04-14-2006 at 05:04 PM.
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Old 04-14-2006, 05:38 PM
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Thank you trevor for the very informative reply. I just got off the phone with my friend back in WI who is a mechanic, and he told me something similar just not in as much detail. I like to think I'm fairly mechanically inclined, but since moving out here I don't have my buddy to help me and oversee what I'm doing so I guess serious errors like these are inevitable in the learning process. The alternator will be in on monday and I've already replaced all the bad fuses with the proper replacements. I'll follow your suggestions (with fingers crossed) and let you know the results. Thanks also for the heads up on the alternator rewire "mod." I'm still pretty green when it comes to the SVX so any help is always appreciated. Even in light of my current problems I'm already in love with my car, shes's my baby. I realized just how much I love her now that I'm driving my 98 Jetta again (2.slow engine). I can't really complain. I'm just glad I have a backup car until the SVX is back on the road which will hopefully be soon........

Cheers,

-Dave
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Old 04-14-2006, 09:07 PM
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Trevor Trevor is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Iceman59718
Thank you trevor for the very informative reply. I just got off the phone with my friend back in WI who is a mechanic, and he told me something similar just not in as much detail. I like to think I'm fairly mechanically inclined, but since moving out here I don't have my buddy to help me and oversee what I'm doing so I guess serious errors like these are inevitable in the learning process. The alternator will be in on monday and I've already replaced all the bad fuses with the proper replacements. I'll follow your suggestions (with fingers crossed) and let you know the results. Thanks also for the heads up on the alternator rewire "mod." I'm still pretty green when it comes to the SVX so any help is always appreciated. Even in light of my current problems I'm already in love with my car, shes's my baby. I realized just how much I love her now that I'm driving my 98 Jetta again (2.slow engine). I can't really complain. I'm just glad I have a backup car until the SVX is back on the road which will hopefully be soon........

Cheers,

-Dave
Dave, I forgot to mention that you should not be sorry regarding your lengthy explanation. Without it, I could not have come up with a worthwhile suggestion and the time you took in setting down a proper explanation is much appreciated.
There have been threads using up space, which could have been settled much more promptly, if all followed your approach.

Thanks and cheers to you, as I am at this moment drinking a beer !
Trevor *<)
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