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electrical issues

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whilst still on the trail of getting the car repaired I am having some major headaches with the electrics

firstly, does anyone know if the batery goes completely flat will this throw up an engine management error that will have to be cleared before the car is started? as my motorbike had to be reset when the battery died over the winter

secondly, where is the ecu? ive had a quick look under the engine bay but it was cold, wet and i was pissed off so didnt look all that hard but couldnt see anyting obvious. I did see a grommit with a lot of wires going through it on the passenger side of the bulkhead behind the glove box so is it behind that?
 
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no it wont give you a error light or anything like that, its not a merc. it will just have a flat battery
ECU is under the passangers kick pannel, (plastic cover to the left of the passengers feet)
 
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haha, I dont know, it was a top end car in its day. There is clearly no power going to the rear of the car as not even the boot light works
 
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right I've found out that when the ignition is on, there is no power going to the fuel pump and it is not priming. The rear brake lights work but the night lights don't and bulbs aren't blown. i haven't checked whether she sparks but it cranks over fine. anyone got any suggestions on what could be causing this?

could it be a blown ECU??
 
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im assuming you have gone through all of the fuses in the engine bay and all of the fuses under the drivers side kick pannel
 
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yup, only one that was busted was the one for the hazard lights. need to check that the relays haven't blown/stuck but need to do some reading on how to check those.

Also a guy at work said that if the fuse box in the kick panel isnt bolted to the car to earth it out (which it isnt currently as the jack plug from the door now doesnt quite reach) then that could be the issue so need to check this tomorrow morning.
 
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nope clean as a whistle and also been undersealed on import

also does anyone know where the earth is for the fuel pump as I dont know if the guys disconnected that when they did work on the car and that could also be another reason why the pump isnt priming. I read on SXOC that one of the relays for the fuel pump controls the spark too, that was on a 14 to i guess the 15's are the same too?
 
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What fuel pump is it, is it new or the OEM? I would think an earthing issue would be the cause of some of your problems..
 
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its the OEM pump. Have sorted a few of the issues yesterday, I now have power to the fuel pump and do believe that it was a n earthing fault however...

I still dont have a spark and I am convinced that it is the alarm that is causing it. the alarm is called autowatch (well thats what is stamped on the back of the fob) and was fitted by torque GT when the car was imported. now because some of the wires for the alarm have been cut and re joined, the alarm has I think gone into lockdown as it knows its been tampered with. so I need to find out if this can be reset in some way or is it completely shot now its been tampered with.
 
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most alarm systems are more hassle then they are worth in the long run, a couple of hidden kill switches is good enough to make a thief work hard as hell and hopefully get busted or give up trying to drive off in your car
 
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I know but it cost me a lot of money to get that fitted, hopefully is just something simple. Anyone had a car from TorqueGT with an autowatch alarm or had any similar issues with them?
 
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I'd strip it out and start from scratch once u know its working you can always rejoin it in after as you will know where everything fits
 

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I have a car from TorqueGT and it has an autowatch alarm. Wouldn't be suprised if it was exactly the same.
My alarm has never crapped itself and locked down. I have had totally flat batteries and no warning lights came on after.

However, when I fitted RLTC I cocked something up somewhere and did upset the ECU and, i believe, the fuel pump relay. It all sorted itself out with a replacement ECU. They don't exactly come up that often though. I'd see if you can borrow someones for a quick try
 
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progress has been slow but worth updating the thread but still have problems lol

Firstly car is running- turns out one of the jack plugs in the fuse box is actually the same as the one that goes to the door which would explain why the leccy windows would prime the fuel pump! anyway she runs but i still have the following issues:

-indicators and hazards dont work, i found a burnt out relay and replaced that and the fuse but when you activate either they flash once then the fuse pops

-tail lights; There is only 5 volts going to the rear lights instead of 12, but the stop lights work and so do the head lights

-door ajar light- this is constantly on and causing a drain on the battery, I think its to do with the boot as the boot light is always on- removed the bulb but the illumination ring still drains the battery. I have checked earths, fuses and the sensor in the lock and all seem ok.

-fuel sender unit; this is not reading (needle sits on empty with the light on) but the tank is brimmed, when checked with a multimeter there is no power going to it but obviously the fuel pump is working.

-speedo: again this is not working but the rev counter is. i bought a working second hand speed sensor from Garage-d at great expense but made no difference leading me to believe mine was actually ok.

Obviously with damage and repairs to the drivers side footwell Im convinced it is something in that area. The sparky im using has the fuse panel out atm and is checking everyting is plugged in as it should be which so far it is. i feel i am going to get the car back still broken so trying to do as much homework as possible on these issues. So if anyone can give me any input of what else to check other than fuses it would be greatly appreciated. (the interior has also been stripped out so i could check harnesses for splits etc- only dash and centre console remain.

Thanks guys and gals
 

S15_SAM

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Ah man that's a total nightmare! Its got to be a shorted wire or broken ECU. Your going to have to strip it down and start doing continuity checks on the wiring front to back.

When you had the damage was it welded at all? Sounds like they either melted wires or cut through some!
 
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Yeh the wires must be shorting out somewhere sounds a right mess hope u get it sorted buddy, check connections behind the fuse box in the footwell I had problems with the missus s14 and a wire was loose
 
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Yes there was welding done. The wiring loom from basically the footwell back is ok, could these problems be a blown ecu though? The dyno check should have thrown that up surely? Yeah just a matter of waiting to see what he finds
 
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Ok so established my problems are not loom related or fuse box related and i believe all the grounds/earths are ok too. This now leaves me with possibly ignition relays from what i have read here as i have some of these issues but not all:

http://www.sr20forum.com/technical-...-how-check-ignition-switch-relays-easily.html

or its the ECU. apparently if i replace the OEM ecu with another OEM ecu it still has to be programmed to the car, is this fact?
 
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