Driving to work today, in the pelting cats and dogs, my car was being it's usual sluggish self. Until i stopped to put petrol in, when i left the petrol station, the engine was suddenly alot smoother and reved alot easier and as a consequence moved a fair bit quicker.

Firmly beleiving in Murphy's Law, i waited for the moment when the engine comes shooting out the bonnet and all the wheels fall off. My first though was the alternator belt fell off and freed up some juice, but no, everything stayed cool.

About 5 minutes from work, my "Wiggly Gauges Syndrome" kicked in. It used to happen a fair bit a while back but i thought i'd settled. i flicked the indicator on an my guages all zeroed and the flasher stopped.

Cancel the indicator and give the dash a good fonzarelli thump and they all came back again, indicator on, everything off again.

Sooooooooooooooooo.... what i'm getting at is..

The guage problem looks like something is shorting out or has a bad earth. and i've seen some of the ricer chaps have these mega engine earth strap kits that free up 1.21 gigawatts.

Could my engine performance issues be something to so with bad electrical connections about the place?

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maybe try disconnecting the flux capacitor....

Yes, yes it could.

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But he's thriving and striving and hugging the turns.

excellent....

so, now that i've found my multimeter, hpw do i go about finding the source of the problem...

set it to measure volts and anything less than 12 is bung?

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"If I were you, I wouldn't start from here!"

There aren't too many earth's. Go around, take'em off. Give the contact patch a going over. Connect 'em up again.

Start you car up, turn EVERYTHING on (indicators, brakelights, handbrake, headlights, high beam, ev er ry sing). See what happens. i rection tit be your "All Tin Nay Tor" (not the Ter Min May Tor").

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But he's thriving and striving and hugging the turns.

My 'nator is brand new...

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Have you another alternator to prove that your 'new' alternator is not far ked?

And who fit ted zee new 'nator?

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But he's thriving and striving and hugging the turns.

This is a strange one yeah?


It could be something hideously complicated, or it could be really simple.

At the possibility of over simplifying the problem, would you consider removing the fuses and reinserting them after giving the holder and the fuse a bit of a buff with sandpaper.

Fiddle about behind the switches looking for a loose connection and same for the back of the gauges. Fonzi should look for loose connections and spades especially.

Measure the voltage at the battery and get back to us on that as well.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

Fuse box.

wonders when the news about my one glass fuse / one house fuse wire "fuse box" will come out..

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i have the old one to prove that this one is less farked..




i did..

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it's been a while since i used it..

so... 'ow do i do that?

on end on a battery terminal on end on some non bare metal?

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Both probes on the battery terminals, not the clamps - will show up dodgy contact - 10.2 or less battery flat. Should sit on around 12.6. Get a friend to start car and rev (around 2000 RPM should be OK) reading should be around 14.2 to 14.8

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Over 1,000,000Km, but now my retirement restoration project

You could try your tongue to measure the voltage as well I suppose.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

oh well... it was a good idea....

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