BurritoBut

My series 4 has been sitting for just about a year now, and in that time I have made some small changes to it. One being unpluging everything in the engine bay and retaping up the loom (it was all coming apart and yuck) and putting everything back together. I have also converted the battery to the boot properly with fuses etc.

I just purchased a 530CCA battery and connected it up to find I had no power when the ignition is on.

I have power as far as I can trace it which is to the fuse box. My hazard lights work and my door/roof/boot interior lights all work.

I'll be calling up the alarm dudes to see if they can help (in case its immobilized) but was just wondering if there was anything I could check in the mean time.


All the fuses inside and out were ok.

Cheers

satch

iTrader: (1)

If the key was set to on and the wipers and turn signals didn't work that would mean the ignition switch is not receiving power from the engine fuse box (Main fuse in this case). If this were the case check the Main fuse and if good then check the connector directly below the engine fuse box which mates the Front and Engine harness together. The connector to look for is located within a foot of the fuse box and mates two Black wires together (one of the Black wires comes from the Main fuse in the engine fuse box). Make sure the connection is good between the two wires and that each side of the connector has battery voltage (no key necessary).

BurritoBut

Awesome thanks for the info. Unfortunately I can't check it out again till Monday, I'll let you know.
Thanks mate

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

If you noticed before you changed the Battery location,you would see that there are actually 2 wires coming off the Positive battery terminal.
One is the main Positive which goes down and feeds the Starter,and then there is a smaller Black wire that goes up to feed one side of the Fuse Block in the engine bay.That feeds the power to the Lights,main fuse,Retractor motors(for your flip up lights),EGI etc.
I've seen it done many a time..Relocate battery and just forget to run a Feed to the Fuse block.
SO<if you have the positive cable already going to the Starter,run another wire,from the starter to the Feed side of the Engine bay fuse block,
That will allow the battery to give power to the Components like lights,MAIN FUSE,..etc.
I hope that is what the problem is,,
IF NOT,I'll hand it back to Satch,,he is good at wiring stuff too,,,good guy too.

BurritoBut

I had power to the fuse box so it sounds like it's somewhere after that. It's most probably my ****ing alarm >_<

BurritoBut

So had a look just before and I'm a little confused. I have power to the alt and starter.

Had a look for the connector just down from the fuse box and couldn't find it . The black cable runs down then goes up to the alt without a connector. Now that I think of it, it must have branched off to get power to the starter. There was a join and I have a mysterious black cable that possibly could have joined to it.
Sorry about my noobness, I have very little electrics experience.

So this is the black cable traced from the fuse box, should have there been a connector in there somewhere? I have circled the join I mentioned above.


Here is a plug that was down near the starter that came off the same part of the loom, it had no power.


Here is the mysterious wire, is this meant to be somewhere? It looks aftermarket what ever it is.


Clearer pic of the join.

HAILERS2

The single black wire that feeds the ignition switch is shown and pointed to in the attaced jpg. That is on a series four turbo or non turbo car.

That wire should be hot 24/7 if the battery is hooked up. You can see in the jpg where that wire/connector comes from in the engine harness.

About that black connector................one half of that connector is part of the engine harness and that half of the plug mates with the other half which is part of the Front harness.

As you can see from the second jpg.....the connector has a name and the name is X-23. On the Engine harness side of the connector you can see that the black wire is spliced into the same wire that ouputs from the alternator (big *** output alt cable).

HAILERS2

The Engine harness is partly composed of those wires in the picture that are attached to the bottom of the engine bay fuse box. The other side of that X23 is the Front harness and runs back inside the car.

BurritoBut

AH!
I found it!
Thanks HAILERS2

It was pretty munted and the wire must have broken off. I connected it up to power and the alarm destroyed my ears .

Thanks a million everyone.

BurritoBut

New problem now.

Don't seem to have power at ACC and it wont turn over. It may be a fuse so Ill check tomorrow.

So at the moment my alarm works, interior lights, heaters and warning lights (ones in the middle of dash) but no gauges or gauge lights etc.

BurritoBut

Bumpy

HAILERS2

With key On, do the wipers work or the turn signals work? Either of them working would give a clue.

I assume you know where the ignitioin switch plugs/leads are. Find the one that has two wires, one pure Black and the other Black/White. Pull that plug off the ignition switch pigtail.

Then find the two wire connector with a Red/Black wire in it.

Jumper b/t the black and the red/black. Starter should spin if the clutch pedal is depressed (clutch interlock switch). Car won't start but the starter should spin.

As for the ACC...........normally the Black wire feeds power thru the ignition switch to the BLUE wire at the ignition switch leads. So jumper b/t the Black and the Blue and see if the ACC items work or not.

IF the starter does not spin, then maybe you have accidently removed the wiring that is b/t the clutch interlock switch and the starter.

HAILERS2

In your second picture above.........what are the colors of the wires in that four socket plug? Is one of them Black/White? IF so that might be the starter problem.

Are the colors like the ones shown in the attached jpg? Those two plugs shown in the jpg mate together to make the starter circuit and other circuits.

HAILERS2

Do you remember removing a BLUE jumper connector as shown in the jpg attached? It connects to a six socket plug and is starter circuit related.

BurritoBut

Heaters, turn signals and wipers work, yea sorry the ACC does work. Lights don't including the gauge lights. I'm not sure if it would effect it but the headlights are not on the car at the moment.

I'll try jumper it tomorrow. I don't actually have the clutch interlock switch, my FC was an auto that's been converted.

I'll also have a look at that plug tomorrow. If I remember correctly I had to modify something around that plug to get it to run after the conversion. It was running fine prior to being parked up.

I have a feeling that my alarm is still playing up even though it seems to be working normally. It has been suggested from another forum that maybe the voltage is dropping too much when trying to start and its activating the immobilizer. Its a brand new 530CCA battery in the boot so it should still be fine.

If it is a low voltage, could it be related to that wire that I fixed in the original issue? The plug that I wired it into seems to get pretty warm, I wonder if it needs a thicker wire.

Ill do some voltage tests tomorrow as well.

BurritoBut

Hmm doesn't look familiar, ill have to have a look.

HAILERS2

Does or did your car have factory theft protection. There is a factory theft relay called the Starter Cut Relay and that is located right next to the Main Relay in the engine bay.

Cars without factory theft get that blue jumper plug attached to the harness. ON cars with the factory theft those do not have that blue jumper plug and the plug that blue outfit is connected to gets attached to the bottom of the Starter Cut Relay.

That plug has four wires. Two black/green.........one black/white.......one light green/yellow. It's a six socket plug with only four wires.

Put the key to Start and the clutch in and the Large black/green gets power. The theft relay or the blue jumper passes that power on to the black/white wire in that connector and then the power goes on thru a four wire plug I posted earlier and then on to the starter solenoid.

See if you can find that four wire plug with the wires I just mentioned. Jumper power from the batt to the black/white wire in that plug and the starter will spin IF everything is right from that plug to the starter solenoid. Car out of gear when doing so. No key required.

BurritoBut

Just tried this. It didn't spin but I think there was a very faint tick from the starter, as well as clunking from a relay near the ignition.

As for the blue connector, I looked everywhere and couldn't find that plug :s.

Voltage at battery is at 11.69v now so I'll have to charge it >_<.


Also that 4 pin plug from my picture did not have a black and white wire.

atsronnyats

basically all at once:

no heater
no wipers
no acc to turn on radio

i have:
illumination all around
turn signals
hazards
defrost
headlights
headlamp motor fuction

fuses are a go...checked. even bought extras lol.

I had everything working fine after a routine radio swap. was able to diagnose the radio problem by jumping 12v+ into the radios ACC....press power button new radio comes on A OK. my problem seams to be within the ignition ACC curcuit before hand

IDEAS? these seam related?

88 fc3s vert 5sp

HAILERS2

Look at the interior fuse box jpg attached.

STOP, HAZARD, ROOM, ANTTENNA, ILLUM..........are powered 24/7 from the engine bay BTN fuse and not key related.

POWER STEERING, ENGINE, METER, TURN, POWER WINDOW...........are powered from the Black/White wire of the ignition switch.

SUNROOF, REAR WIPER, WIPER, COOLING FAN.............are powered from the ignition switches Black/Red wire (the B/R in a plug alongside a L colored wire).

CIGAR, AUDIO are powered from the ignition switch by a L colored wire (ACC)

The Black/Red wire in the igniton switch powers the starter. Thats the B/R in a plug all by itself.

The pure BLACK wire in the ignition switch plugs, powers those fuses above thru the switch itself (with the exception of those fuses powered by the BTN fuse).

IF you by pass the ignition switch and jumper power to either the B/W or L or B/R (the B/R in the two wire plug) wires, then those fuses I described just above should power whatever those fuses go to.

Not much I can do about the starter power. Normally the power goes from the ignition switch on the B/R that is in the single wire plug...........to the clutch interlock switch.............to the plug that attaches to the Starter Cut Relay..........to a four wire plug I described earlier..........to the starter solenoids small trigger wire.

For the starter problem............I'd find that six socket plug that has four wires in it. It should be located connected to the Starter Cut Relay (if the car came with factory theft) that is located next to the Main Relay or located nearby like under the trail coil assy area. Then find the B/W wire in that plug and jumper power from the battery positive post to that B/W wire in that plug. Starter should spin. If not then the other plug that has the four wires I mentioned earlier is disconnected OR the small wire is off the starter solenoid.

satch

iTrader: (1)

Pic of the starting circuit 4 wire Blue plug.

BurritoBut

Ok, I think I know what it may be.

I only have 11.5v from a battery that's charged to 13.5v getting to the starter when turning the key. Apparently the alarm requires at least 12v to mobilize the car. I have shifted the battery to the boot and had my ground going to the back of the boot (in pic). I think this ground point isn't the best and may be causing the voltage drop. Where are some good points to ground to in the boot? Preferably without having to drill new holes .

HAILERS2

Where are you measuring this 11.5vdc when the key is to START?

Is the stater turning over????? when you see this 11.5?

When a car is being started it's normal for a voltage drop to 9-11 vdc IF the starter is actually turning over/spinning. It's not normal to see 11.5 at the battery if the key is to start and the starter is not turning over.

If you turn the key ON only and the starters large input cable reads only 11.5........battery sucks in my opinion or some other item is sucking the heck out of the battery.

IF you pull the small trigger wire off the starter and put a meter on it..........what does the meter read when the key is HELD to START? If nothing..............you need to trace the starter wiring out from the black/red at the ignition switch.........to the clutch interlock switch.......to the green/black that leaves the clutch interlock switch...............to the Starter Cut Relays elect plug...............to the connector called FE- 05.....to the small wire on the starter solenoid.

Got factory THEFT? Remove the plug from the Starter Cut Relay and jumper the Black/White to the black/red to eliminate the theft protection from having squat to do with starting the car.

Odd. The negative cable on a stock RX goes directly to the starters long attach bolt or one of the nearby engine/transmission bolts. Plus a smaller cable spliced to that neg cable attached to just a foot or so below the left strut tower. Where is your gnd to the engine/transmisison coming from. Those small 18ga gnd wires near the wiper motor etc won't do much of anything. for the starter.

To many unknowns for a shorter answer to this.

BurritoBut

Ok, so I pulled my starter out and bench tested it, it was shooting out but not spinning. I cleaned all the contacts and it worked perfectly - mint.

So I put it back in the car and got a fright, it started turning over at ACC, which meant that I had stupidly switched the wires over on the starter. So I put them back, put the battery back on and....
wtf? ALL of my warning lights are on without the key in... I put the key in and turn it, they all go brighter (normal brightness) and its not cranking again...

Back to square one.

BurritoBut

It has constant power - fans/warning lights etc..

Pretty keen to set it on fire.