[SpiderSaint]

Just had complete electrics failure and was sat on M27 hard shoulder for 45 mins waiting for RAC.
My thoughts are its water related but here's the story, drove from Southampton up M3 to South London this morning, pretty much rain all the way up, all fine. Return journey back down A3M tonight again pretty much rain all the way, turned on to M27 where the road was wet but not raining and no big standing water, all fine then just 5 miles from home doing 70 mph I lost the lights, everything in pitch dark so hit the hazards and luckily pulled straight over into a slip road with a very generous hard shoulder.

The engine was running as smooth as ever so no problems there, I left the engine running for about 10 minutes then thought there was a chance that I had lost the fan so switched off, then couldn't restart it, there was nothing except for the hazards, the interior light and the radio, key locked into dash.

First thoughts were it being a main fuse but speaking to RAC man on phone he said extremely unlikely as a single fuse wouldn't cover so much.

2 minutes before recovery arrived I tried the start button and bugger me if it didn't start up, lights ok, all back to normal so thought best to wait for the recovery and asked him to follow me home.

All fine on way back home, pulled in outside home and turned car off to have chat with RAC man, curbed my bloody front wheel doing so, won't see until the morning how bad but it's a curbing, sod it.
Jumped in to start up and put up driveway but nothing, I could hear something faintly trying but have left it for now, will try again after typing this.

Any thoughts ?
To my knowledge I didn't go through any major standing water on way back home.

 

[SpiderSaint]

Chatting to RAC engineer I mentioned the only other problem I've ever had with the electrics was simply down to an earth connection, he seemed to think this could be down to an earth but he was honest enough to say he didn't really have an idea.

 

[Major_Clanger]

All manner of things spring to mind, but the first I'd look at would be to ensure the battery and engine have good, clean grounds to earth. Intermittent contact, especially after prolonged rain, can do all sorts of odd things. Good luck.

 

[SpiderSaint]

I'm hoping for a bit of dry tomorrow to give me a chance of looking around

 

[SpiderSaint]

I should add that my previous earth problems were sorted and if has been fine for at least 6 months

 

[SpiderSaint]

Just been outside after some 20 to 30 minutes and the car started fine, now back up the driveway.

My massive worry is this could happen again, out of what was probably a 150 mile round trip I broke down in the one place that was all but completely safe, just imagine if I was on the M25 or in the 4th lane coming up to Portsmouth and I lost all lights, wipers etc in full dark and ****ing down with rain, that could have been an accident I really don't want to be thinking about.

 

[Lord_of_beard]

What do the diagnostics say.

 

[lussoman]

It does sound as though the battery's not tightly connected - I had something similar on my last car.
It's surprising what a difference it can make, even if it seems okay. Try tightening everything up.
Good luck.

 

[SpiderSaint]

No diagnostics Lord, I am thinking of putting it back in to Autolusso, it needs under sealing anyway so get Laurence to check it over.

L, I will check all battery connections and have a look around in a minute, bit that baffles me is that I had power to the hazard lights, the interior light and the radio, also the windows dropped and raised when the doors were opened but everything else was completely dead.
No dials, no windows, no ignition, so dead that I couldn't get the key out of the dash.

I would have thought that if there was such a bad connection somewhere that either I would have lost everything or had some sort of weak power to other electrics than mentioned were still working.

 

[lussoman]

Could you hear a 'clicking' sound at any point when the trouble was occurring?
I remember with mine there were certain minor things it could still do, but not enough to get the engine going.
There was lots of 'clicking' going on. A good tighten-up of everything and it was back to normal.
If only everything was that simple - I hope yours isn't something more sinister.

 

[SpiderSaint]

No not really, everything other than mentioned was totally gone, bloody scary when everything goes black at night on the motorway, all I remember was trying to push the hazards, not easy when wondering what the hell was happening.
Just been out and alls fine this morning, everything working and started first push as always.
I have definitely decided to get it in to Autolusso asap as I just won't have the confidence when out at night, just about to give it a quick wash and dry then look around.

 

[JON156VELOCE]

Sounds like loose battery terminals or bad earth.
There are 2 earth cables, the one from the battery to the body is easy to see, the other one is right under the battery and goes between the gearbox mount bracket and a bell housing bolt. t is this one which failed on my car a few years ago, An easy test is when it is playing up put a jump lead between the battery negative and somewhere metal on the engine.

 

[SpiderSaint]

Thanks for your replies guys, the weather here has been crap again so didn't really get too far, connections I could get at were OK, fuse box dry and no real signs of excess water around the engine bay.
I have e-mailed Autolusso to book it in as it needs a couple of other jobs doing, I'll pass on your thoughts when it goes in.
I'm just so hoping that it's down to earth connections.
I'll update when it goes in for a check.

 

[SpiderSaint]

Im running the same thread on the AROC forum so apologies if any of you are reading this twice.

Do you think it is possible that a weak battery in the key fob could cause such problems ?

It has been hinted on the other forum that it could be something to do with the ignition side of things and I have recently noticed the key fob not locking and unlocking first time, only happened a hand full of times though.
I had the same happen this morning so went back inside and used my spare key and it did seem much stronger.