Quack

Decided to just do it in car, am I doing it right? If so then yep starter motor is gone.. IMG_3393.MOV

Yeah just wanted to double check okay thanks I need to add an engine earth cable. At the moment trying to figure out how to get the starter motor out, no clue how to gain access the bolts

I'm pretty sure i don't even have that and yeah will measure with a voltmeter today to see if there's continuity.

p.s. when you say check the engine is well earthed, do you mean the grounding cable going from the chassis to the negative terminal of the battery?

Perfect, exactly the kind of video i was looking for thanks. Will get back to you all next week afterwards...fingers crossed. This post has been a journey 😂

Well the alarm plugged directly in to the positive battery cable, and that cable linked to the solenoid, so I’m guessing when the solenoid fried it somehow sent the current back and overloaded the alarm? For some reason too much current got to the alarm, but using a voltmeter and checking the battery it was putting out the correct amount. The alternator I can’t check because the car won’t run at the moment, but when I last checked it I recall it being fine really not sure, my knowledge of electrical systems is limited, I’ll replace the solenoid but if you have any more concerns please say before I try to fire it up on a new solenoid and fry that too!

I have all of that too, still just annoying if some joker wants to get in and start messing with stuff, I find they’re much less likely to sit there and smoke a joint with their mates if the alarm is going off, but yeah your point stands that they are clearly rather pointless since it’s now been frazzled by the solenoid 😂

In what way? I feel it's quite important for me, somebody tried to previously steal my car in a residential area before i had an alarm, which meant they almost got away with it. So really i want to keep it for peace of mind. Yeah i'll post back here after i replace the solenoid, like i say just fingers crossed that nothing else got fried in the process.

Connected my alarm to the battery just standalone, and its still completely buggered, makes weird sounds, then none at all. Any ideas how this could've happened? The alarm simply cut in to the big positive wire going from the battery to the solenoid. Has it been fried by the current going from the battery to the solenoid maybe? Cause this makes me concerned that other things have broken when whatever happened, happened. I checked the ohms on the coil, they're reading fine so thats ok. The solenoid i'm going to replace. Hopefully i dont need to replace the starter motor too but, im imagining i probably will...

Yes just came back here to say I removed the coil to access solenoid, seems like the smoke came from here as it’s pretty messy. Think I’m going to straight up replace.

Nearest one to me is andover, i'll try get in contact with them now

This is beyond comprehension now. The battery reads 12.8, so it’s got plenty of charge. How can the alarm which is only connected to the battery possibly be screwing up…I thought it was the coil but then why is this happening? Honestly losing the plot over here.

I’m based in Salisbury. tried voltmeter on coil, no response from either pos or neg so it’s dead. also my alarm I installed now makes much lower pitch noises when I lock the car. The alarm only connects directly to the main battery’s positive lead as seen in the pic below…

It is yeah but it didn’t seem like it was coming from there, you can see the starter in the video

just checked battery, putting out 12.6 turned off and on about 14.6, turned it off and then tried to turn on again and… Complete disaster turn of events! car won’t start at all, smoke coming from somewhere, seems like coil?! god what is going on with this vehicle…no idea what to do now IMG_3376.MOV

I have an electronic ignition, just running through all the info above now

Okay will read through the above comments thoroughly and see what I can do and get back, thanks. Cheers for the link. as for the battery, when I first bought it the guy said it just had a new battery put in. It then was knackered a few weeks later and I replaced it with a brand new good spec battery. So if the battery is knackered again then something is going very wrong, damaging the battery.. no diag for the Rev counter, it’s just one cable going in to the harness which I assume goes to coil. for timing I borrowed a timing light before I moved back south. Got it central between the two white marks on the pulley. The marks were already there on the car before I had it.

Okay will bring it back to 700rpm idle with the screw

Starting car: Warmed up and reached idle: Watch these and let me know what you think if this is how it should normally be to start

I'll try put the videos on vimeo and link them

@Pete Lewis Nope just standard 4 gear

I dont know what's going on then, maybe it's coincidence that my idle increased at the same time as my rev counter breaking, but i am 100% certain that it is actually idling at 1500, i can hear the difference in the engine. When i adjust the screw to get the idle back to 1000rpm, it sounds how it used to sound, which leads me to believe the rev counter is functioning properly. The rev counter reads higher than it did before at every 10mph increment. I don't know what else to say, this is just what's happening. I understand what you're saying, that its not possible, which is why im baffled. I think i'd be a fool to think that nothing is wrong with the engine, and that my idle screw has randomly slipped or something. @Iain T my idle used to be 1000rpm when i first got it, its never been lower than that, so that was an issue from the start then, i thought 1000rpm was normal. Below are two videos showing what happens when i try to start the car, and 10 minutes later when its warmed up. The temp gauge goes up far quicker than it used to, and the revs slowly make their way up. its at 1000rpm because i changed the idle screw, normally it would be 1500.

I'll post a video of me starting it up as well in an hour or so, so you can see the full process behind what happens on first start of the day.

Nonono okay i'll start from the beginning - the revs are ALWAYS above, whether it's idle, driving, stationary, they always sit above what they normally are. E.g. my idle is now 1500 when it should be 1000, and when im driving at 30mph in 3rd gear it would be 2000, however its now 2500. - The only reason the IDLE is OK now is because i changed the idle screw, however this doesn't actually change anything at all when driving, this is just for the time being to add a bit of a 'half fix' whilst i locate the problem, so ignore this part of it, pretend i never changed the idle screw. The idle is still at 1500, but i just moved the idle screw for the time being, making it 1000. I'm putting it back to normal once i fix the problem. - There is never a gap between the idle screw and casting, it always sits as it should. - It is definitely audibly faster yes, i know this because when i screw the idle screw out, it sounds normal again and the rpms drop down to 1000 (how it's meant to sound and be). So the tacho isn't faulty, and it is reading the actual revs. Summary: - The engine is a bit jittery, appearing to 'rev itself' almost. -The revs are higher than normal (500 above whatever they would normally be). -The engine takes longer to start at key-turn than normal.

The rev changes don't come and go either, it's always sitting above normal since the problem began, idle or running or whenever. There is a bit of slack on throttle but not really any on choke, will give it some slack today. Spark plugs i replaced yesterday with no improvements, the old ones weren't too bad but did have a lot of oil on them which could indicate a leak inside? unrelated anyway. I changed the timing a few times, just set it with timing light the other day back to standard setting. I did advance it a bit before as i'd heard it was good for fuel economy but felt a bit janky so i put it back. Mixture never been checked, has always ran fine until recently. Will replace the oil today and add some slack to choke 🙂