Bad day, my car let me down...

[Lazy-Ferret]

So, the first time, my Terrano let me down... I loaded her all up with stuff to take over to Suz's dad, he was coming out of hospital today, and then when I went to start her, no go....

She turned over and grey smoke came out the back, but she would not fire up. After running the battery flat, I gave up, moved everything over to Jiggle, and left her on the drive with the battery on charge....

Will have a look tomorrow.

Sent from my SM-T705 using Tapatalk

[Banshee]

Originally Posted by Lazy-Ferret

So, the first time, my Terrano let me down... I loaded her all up with stuff to take over to Suz's dad, he was coming out of hospital today, and then when I went to start her, no go....

She turned over and grey smoke came out the back, but she would not fire up. After running the battery flat, I gave up, moved everything over to Jiggle, and left her on the drive with the battery on charge....

Will have a look tomorrow.

Sent from my SM-T705 using Tapatalk

Not good Clive

Hope you sort it out, how are your glow plugs?

[Lazy-Ferret]

Originally Posted by Banshee

Not good Clive

Hope you sort it out, how are your glow plugs?

Ironically I checked them last week, they were changed 3 years ago, and all still fine...

I am hoping it's the relay, but I can hear it clicking, so that side is working, but not checked the other side of it.. It may be a fuse, although I am not sure where it is yet.

[Banshee]

Originally Posted by Lazy-Ferret

Ironically I checked them last week, they were changed 3 years ago, and all still fine...

I am hoping it's the relay, but I can hear it clicking, so that side is working, but not checked the other side of it.. It may be a fuse, although I am not sure where it is yet.

I'm sure you'll work it out on your own mate but if you need any help holler at us and I'm sure we'll be able to advise.

Make sure you come back and tell us what it was

[jims-terrano]

Good luck, can't be anything serious.

[solarman216]

If it is the relay no need for Nissans big box jobbie, any 70 amp+ relay will do, same size as other relays on your motor, all you have to do is crimp on new Lucar terminals, but look for corroded terminals on the relay for starters, Rick

[Lazy-Ferret]

Cheers guys, I already have a nice 200amp relay here, so if it is the relay, that will be going in, and as a bonus, it is waterproof as well...

It would be nice if it was the relay...

The other day, after fitting the new glowplugs etc to Suz's car, I checked the ones on my car as well. I used an Ammeter and a small Sealed Lead Acid battery to check them one at a time, and see how much current each was drawing, and within a small tolerance, they all started out at about 14amp, and as they heated up, dropped back to about 8.... On Suz's car, they only started out at 8amp, and drop back to 6 as they heat up, which is a bit weird, as they are all LP079's. When I checked the total current going through the feed wire on the car, it was only 43amp total, so with hind sight, it looked like the relay already had a resistance somewhere.

[Banshee]

Originally Posted by Lazy-Ferret

Cheers guys, I already have a nice 200amp relay here, so if it is the relay, that will be going in, and as a bonus, it is waterproof as well...

It would be nice if it was the relay...

The other day, after fitting the new glowplugs etc to Suz's car, I checked the ones on my car as well. I used an Ammeter and a small Sealed Lead Acid battery to check them one at a time, and see how much current each was drawing, and within a small tolerance, they all started out at about 14amp, and as they heated up, dropped back to about 8.... On Suz's car, they only started out at 8amp, and drop back to 6 as they heat up, which is a bit weird, as they are all LP079's. When I checked the total current going through the feed wire on the car, it was only 43amp total, so with hind sight, it looked like the relay already had a resistance somewhere.

I never bother with that test anymore, I've tested ceramic plugs that were in my Maverick like you did and got similar readings to find that when I actually pulled them out there was only 1/4 of the ceramic tip remaining on the plug.

For the sake of whipping the intercooler off and moving 2 pipes, you can't beat a physical inspection by eye and then the jump lead test (negative onto body, touch the threaded tip with positive).

If the glow without any hotspots right back towards the body of the plug they are good

[Lazy-Ferret]

Hopefully fixed it, although, I will have to wait and see if it happens again to prove the point.

Long story short, after checking the glow plugs, several connectors, the relay, and then finally finding where the fuse is, it turned out to be a blown fuse. By the way, the fuse is not in any of the fuse boxes, it is in a connector, on the back of the power steering reservoir bracket.

The problem is, it is a "Special" fuse, which is very similar to a standard cheap 80amp (PAL) block fuse stocked by most motor factors, but just different enough, that you can't fit the cheap alternative in place of the Nissan special one. I did a search online, but no luck, so I guess it's a Nissan main stealer part.

I popped round to the Motor Factor, and picked up 3 of the cheap (82p each) 80amp slow blow fuses, and using the blown Nissan Fuse, hot glue gun, and plenty of heat shrink tubing, I made up an adaptor.







It means I can now look for the proper fuse at a reasonable price, but have a ready supply of cheap fuses to hand, while I get to the bottom of the problem.

I have a feeling it may blow again, as while testing things, the first time I checked the glow plugs, the ammeter briefly showed a reading of 150amp, then dropped back to 54amp, so it looks like one of the glow plugs is going short circuit, I just can't work out which one, as it would not repeat it no matter how much I tried, even after putting them in the freezer, to make them really cold, just in case it was a heat related issue.

I might just order up 4 new ones, and replace the lot as the ones in there are now about 3 years old.

Just a little note to those less electrically savvy, when playing with heavy current devices on a car, like glowplugs, starter motor, head/spot lights etc, never trust a voltmeter, especially a digital voltmeter, to tell you the whole truth

You can go round unplugging things and measuring voltages all over the place, happily getting readings, but still find when you plug it all back together, nothing still works. This is because the amount of current drawn by the digital voltmeter is so low, that even a drip of water over the gap in a blown fuse passes sufficient current for the meter to measure a voltage. I know about this, but it still took me a while to work out why I had 12v at the connector to the glow plugs, but as soon as I plugged it in, the voltage was gone...

[rustic]

Good tip there LF, that's why old fashioned electrical and electronic engineers put their life in the hands from the readings of a good old Avo 8, they do draw current and do not measure the parasitic voltage and current flows as seen by high impedance input of a digital multimeter.

Rustic

PS for an alternative fuse holder, use a Mega fuse type holder that also take strip fuses.

[Lazy-Ferret]

Originally Posted by rustic

Good tip there LF, that's why old fashioned electrical and electronic engineers put their life in the hands from the readings of a good old Avo 8, they do draw current and do not measure the parasitic voltage and current flows as seen by high impedance input of a digital multimeter.

Rustic

PS for an alternative fuse holder, use a Mega fuse type holder that also take strip fuses.

I use those fuse holders on the 2 ends of the link wire between the twin batteries, and the feed off to the distribution box. They are very good, but a little bulky...

My dad had a good old Avo 8, he made a nice wooden box it fitted nice and snuggly in, with a slot down one side for all the attachments, but when we came across it a few years back, it has sat in the shed for about 20years with out any use, and was totally out of calibration with all the contacts dirty, and very well worn from the amount of use it had, and when I looked into getting it sorted out, it was considerably cheaper to buy a half decent digital clamp meter, that can safely measure up to 400amp DC and AC, plus all the other usual suspects... Luckily I have an older ITT dual Digital and analogue meter that is only rated up to 10amps, but it makes a great fall back on days like today, where the digital was giving me a hard time.

[jims-terrano]

That's an interesting fuse holder, what's the fuses like?

[Lazy-Ferret]

Originally Posted by jims-terrano

That's an interesting fuse holder, what's the fuses like?

They do a few, some are just a strip of metal, others are encased in a ceramic lump...

[rustic]

The mega fuse is a safer fuse, if there are any flammable material about, the strip fuse could blow hot molten metal anywhere, paper, petrol, even battery hydrogen gas could be ignited, so use with caution.

It seems we have a sensible group on here that now we are all following safety first, and people asking first, then having a go.
I think we are a better forum, because of each other.

Uncle Rustic...

Haven't used the "Uncle" bit for a while lol,
I use that prefix when spouting about safety advice lol...