Forum:
I have a 94 sportrak and it wasnt used for about a month. When i went to start it it wouldnt start and the voltmeter was reading low. So i tried to jump start it from a friends car and it still wouldnt start. But what happened was the jump leads got really hot and so i had to disconnect them. So i then removed the battery and charged it up and it had no power at all then. I called the rac to get them to see if they could start it and they couldnt. They checked all the fuses and all were fine. What they did was put a wire from the headlights into the main fuse and now to start the car i have to switch the head lights on or there is no power.
Does anyone have any ideas what ive done to it? What do i do now as im desperate to sell it as i dont use it anymore hence the reason the battery went flat in the first place. thanks for any advice.
No Power
You may have a duff relay on the starting loom. I had this on a Mini recently where the power was not getting to the starter via the relay. However I think from your note that the vehicle starter was working. Jump leads to tend to get hot if used for along time so I would discount that as a problem. What I cant understand is the solution which brings me back to one of the the relays or a breakin the supply circuit to the main fuse.
Sorties can be a problem when batteries are low and often using a set of jump leads still won't start it. The problem is that the amount of fuel in the injection system (flooding) seems to prevent starting to protect the CAT perhaps. Often leaving it will solve the problem, I don't think this is so in your instance.
Mysuggestion can only be to trace thenormal wire from the Main fuse to where power is lost. It ma be a termial broken or corroded preventing power to the mainfuse. Have you a fuse on the slimmer wire from the battery? If so is it intact of corroded
Sorry not to be definite in any of this but it does seem like a supply fault because power isgetting to all the lights and all the RAC have done is provided a power source. Do you have to run the light all the time? If not then it points to a relay faiure.
OLDMINIMAN
M J Young
Power supply
There may be a fusible link in the wire from the starter into the fuse box. This doesn't look like a fuse, just a short length of insulated wire (about 10cm max) with one end connected to the positive terminal on the starter solenoid and the other end connected to the feed to the fusebox. On the Daihatsu, there are often two feeds taken from this terminal, one for the headlamps (which are switched earth usually) and one for the fuse box which each have a fusible link rated at 50A or similar. If the RAC man took a feed from the headlamps which are permantly live then this means that their fusible link is intact. I would try bypassing the other fusible link with a suitably THICK wire - a jump lead for instance - and seeing if it starts normally. If so, you've found your problem.
Alastair.