156 JTS electrical woes - any ideas?

[AndrewM]

Looking for suggestions about this problem. It's difficult to find professional help this week - every business I use is on holiday.

Twice in the last two days the electrics in my 2005 JTS wagon have suddenly died, without giving any warning. Everything on the dash/console goes blank and all accessories stop working at once. The starter motor continued to work, cranking the motor strongly, but motor wouldn't fire. Then, both times, everything started working again after a few minutes. No error messages displayed, everything running perfectly. The only thing that had changed was the LED display (date etc) and trip computer had reset themselves.

The weather wasn't particularly hot on both occasions. The first incident occurred when resarting after standing for a couple of hours (after a longish drive). The second occured while driving for only a couple of minutes.

Hoping it's something simple - a loose connection somewhere??? Is there anything obvious I should be looking for?

Any ideas gratefully received.

[bix]

How old is your battery? I've seen some electrical gremlin issues posted here with the root cause being the battery no longer holding their charge (however they still turn over the motor).

[colcol]

If your car has a Supercharge Battery that is sealed, then you can't do a gravity test on the battery acid, if its another type of battery with 6 caps on top, then you can check the health of your battery with a hydrometer, if not give your battery terminals a good clean and the main circuit breaker, give the terminals a bit of a clean and then clean up the big fuses around the battery and see how you go, Colin.

[ANG156]

if not give your battery terminals a good clean and the main circuit breaker, give the terminals a bit of a clean and then clean up the big fuses around the battery and see how you go, Colin.

My 156 had a similar issue at the start of last year. I thought it was the battery but it had been replaced just a month prior. After much playing around i found the problem, it was a shitty earth. I noticed it when i jump started the car. i connected the negative to the suspension tower and cranked the car over without connecting the positive. It started like normal. I then switched the car off and tried starting it again without the additonal earth and no go. So i figured this was the problem. I got some additional battery cable, terminals and some heatshrink and made up a cable running direct from the battery to the chassis. I also cleaned all ther terminals until they golden again and havn't had a problem since.

A poor earth can cause many problems and yours sounds similar to mine. I know a mechanic from zagame and he told me they used to add an additional earth wire to the 147's to stop them throwing up infrequent ecu error messages.

[AndrewM]

Hi again. Thought I'd better revisit this and bring it up to date. Everything is back on track - no electrical problems of late, and my love affair with the JTS wagon has resumed. It seems that the problem was a basic one - a loose connection at the pos. battery terminal clamp, or more precisely the connection on top of the clamp that goes to the accessories. This bolt could not be tightened properly (poor quality, non original equipment), so the whole clamp arrangement was replaced with an original style one.

I learnt that there is another separate lead that goes directly from the clamp to the starter motor, which explains why the starter motor still worked when everything else was dead (because of the loose connection). I also learnt that the climate control system will not work unless you wait for about 2 minutes before turning the key after reconnecting the battery. 

Thanks to Robert Fragale (RF Automotive Electrical), who got to the bottom of this problem and did a great job. He is an auto electrician who has an interest in things European, and particularly Italian. He is a  clever and articulate young guy who will be my go-to person for anything electrical from now on. It is long trip (for me) to his place in Reservoir, but well worth it. (He also does call outs). Thanks also to his brother Domenic (a club member and frequent visitor to this forum) who put me in touch.

Thanks for those who posted advice. It looks like Colin was pretty close to the mark with his suggestion (not surprisingly).

[avim]

Hi Andrew,

Can you please PM this guys details?

[Alfapride]

hi Andrew, could you also send me the auto elec's details Thanks

[colcol]

I had a problem similar to this, not on the JTS, but on the 33, it was like it had a dirty battery connection, but the battery and battery lead were shiny clean, but the lead would get awfully hot when cranking, and the insulation would smoke, i looked at the lead inside the battery connector and it was all dirty and corroded, so i put on a new terminal from Repco, and now it cranks like its got a new battery, the Alfa terminals are really a bit underdone, Colin.