Evening

Got the 2001 bugeye out of storage, been driving it around fine for 2 weeks all fine and then today, Gremlins.

5 minutes into a drive, ABS light comes on, 30 seconds later all the dash dies, so no RPM or MPH. 30 seconds later the alarm comes on (cars still driving ) and then 30 seconds later the car is juddering badly when i put the accelerator on.

Pull over and park up, try to crank the engine and it doesnt turn over, try again and nothing like the battery is dead and doesn't have the power to turn the engine over.

Leave it 5 minutes and it fires up like normal. Drive for 5 minutes and the previous sequence starts over again in the exact order. I pull over and wait 5 minutes, it start fine.

I'm close to home as this all started quite early on into the journey so make my way back. Happens again in the exact same sequence, pull over.

Wait 5 minutes, start it up and make it back to the yard as i'm only 500 meters away at this point and park it up.

Suggestions? The battery is brand new, 2 weeks old.

Cheers

 

Double check the earth?

 

I'm inclined to go with the earth and/or some sort of dodgy wiring somewhere also.

 

It would seem something is warming up and then disrupting the power distribution.

I'd start with checking all the main SBF fuses in the enginebay fusebox.

 

Pull the fuses out to check for corrosion and cracks.
I once had an intermittent fault that turned out to be a cracked fuse that would expand as it warmed up.

 

My main fuse had cracked, when walm driving one day it cut the dash lights then the engine they put the alarm on, felt like flat batt and running out of fuel. I bought a second hand fuse and all was fine

 

I had a similar problem on my other car (Peugeot) and it turned out to be an earth cable coming loose. Fortunately it was clearly visible when I checked under the bonnet and managed to fix it easily. A bit of corrosion could make it harder to spot, so maybe worth cleaning up any earth connections.

 

 

Thanks for the replies

So i'm going through the fuses and i'm thinking to myself "I'm making an assumption about the battery here". I put the meter on it and its 11.9volts, so way down. Start the car up and put the meter back on the battery expecting to see 13+ volts from the alternator but it doesn't rise from the 11.9.

The alternator is not charging and because the battery is brand new the car was working fine when the battery was fully charged but as the voltage started to drop from use the electrics started to go funny understandably.

I'll take the alternator off and open it up and see if the brushes are worn.

 

Check the warning bulb in the dash before you pull the alternator, the system won't charge if it's blown.

 

Don't be so sure about the alternator. At one point they had "smart" alternators which wouldn't generate power unless there was a draw. I found this out when I used to have a turbo timer (yes I know ) - I used to check the voltage and it would only show 14v when the lights were on.

 

 

So i've charged the Battery back up and put it back in the car and no problems apart from my central locking doesn't work. I pulled the fuses inside the car and they are all fine?

 

So to wrap this one up.

The Alarm, central locking, interior light issue was fuse 2 from Don Clark's picture on post #4. Funny enough this showed me the immobiliser isn't worth it's salt as if you take this out, the engine will still crank over without bleeping the alarm fob and start if you keep the ignition turned. Nothing will happen for a few seconds but it will start.

Original symptoms posted above was the alternator. It was showing 3 amps under load so the battery warning light on the dash would go out as it was "technically" producing power.

Swapped the alternator over and the battery is happily charging at 14+ volts

So after 7 years in storage it's happily running around now, thanks for all the input guys.

Tom