Weird instrument cluster (and other) fault

[Stu-]

My car has just developed a really weird fault. Can anyone offer any ideas?

Basically drove approx 400 miles last week and didn’t miss a beat. Got in it Saturday morning and drove to the local supermarket, also fine. Then 2 hours later gonout again, this time the car is turning over but won’t start, well it fires then cuts a second later.

Checked the usual undet the bonnet, nothing obvious. Try to start again and this time it starts and runs like nothing had happened.

So I go out for a drive, the Rev needle is constantly bouncing, as is the Speedo, oil light and eml randomly flashing.

Also when I came to a stop and reversed into a space, I had no power steering.

I thought the battery may be on its way out, so replaced it this morning. Which hasn’t helped. The car still drives fine, just the weird thing with needles and lights while driving and loss of power steering is a bit worrying.

Any ideas what would be causing this?

 

[RADIOTWO]

My car has just developed a really weird fault. Can anyone offer any ideas?

Basically drove approx 400 miles last week and didn’t miss a beat. Got in it Saturday morning and drove to the local supermarket, also fine. Then 2 hours later gonout again, this time the car is turning over but won’t start, well it fires then cuts a second later.

Checked the usual undet the bonnet, nothing obvious. Try to start again and this time it starts and runs like nothing had happened.

So I go out for a drive, the Rev needle is constantly bouncing, as is the Speedo, oil light and eml randomly flashing.

Also when I came to a stop and reversed into a space, I had no power steering.

I thought the battery may be on its way out, so replaced it this morning. Which hasn’t helped. The car still drives fine, just the weird thing with needles and lights while driving and loss of power steering is a bit worrying.

Any ideas what would be causing this?

If you have a multimeter check the voltage both when the engine is off and again running and report back
with the voltages !

 

[Stu-]

This was the first thing I checked. 12.5 engine off. 14.6 engine running.

 

[RADIOTWO]

This was the first thing I checked. 12.5 engine off. 14.6 engine running.

Just a bit of a long shot, must admit it did sound like low voltage, could still be check out some earth connections and also the plug
in the back of the alternator

 

[Stu-]

I had a quick look under the bonnet and found one of the load sensor wires had broken, which could explain the loss of power steering I suppose. But could that be the cause of the erratic instrument cluster?

I’ve chopped the wires back to fresh copper and spliced in some new wire, unfortunately the problem is still there. I suspect it’s because the wire I spliced in was probably twice as thick and causing some resistance or maybe another break further up. I will pick up some smaller gauge wire in the week and swap it out next weekend. Fingers crossed.

 

[RADIOTWO]

I had a quick look under the bonnet and found one of the load sensor wires had broken, which could explain the loss of power steering I suppose. But could that be the cause of the erratic instrument cluster?

I’ve chopped the wires back to fresh copper and spliced in some new wire, unfortunately the problem is still there. I suspect it’s because the wire I spliced in was probably twice as thick and causing some resistance or maybe another break further up. I will pick up some smaller gauge wire in the week and swap it out next weekend. Fingers crossed.

How do you know it is a load sensing wire ? I thought they were at the back of the car

 

[Stu-]

Load signal wire I meant. It is what tells the alternator it’s under load and to push out more power. And it’s definitely at the front.

https://forums.seatcupra.net/index....ken-load-signal-cable-from-alternator.209472/

 

[RADIOTWO]

Load signal wire I meant. It is what tells the alternator it’s under load and to push out more power. And it’s definitely at the front.

https://forums.seatcupra.net/index....ken-load-signal-cable-from-alternator.209472/

Hi Again
its your description thats the problem, the load sensor is just that it senses the load in the car, and then adjusts the suspension, but the load"signal"cable is a different thing.

 

[Stu-]

My previous post corrected my first. Load SIGNAL wire. There is no suspension load sensor on a mk4 Ibiza afaik, The suspension doesn’t get any adjustment.

Take a look at the link I posted above and hopefully it will be clearer. This is nothing to do with the suspension.