cars cutting out, HELPPP

[jake_smith]

Right today i had a new alternator and i put it on with a dead battery , i then jimp started it and it started fine for a the first few mins then all off a sudden it died. Then we jump started it again and it died. I havent had chance to drive it off teh drive yet as its late.

But anyway is this right...

To starter motor
1 black fat wire (earth)
1 small clip wire (positive)
but theres still one spade left over on the other side. And i cant find anything to connect to this..?

Alternator
one really thin blue wire (8mm bolt)
one red wire

so basically is it 2 wires going to starte motor and 2 wires going to alternator?

Thanks

[Puncharado]

On this alternato/starter sub-loom there are 2 connections to each component.

Alternator - thin blue cable is for the alternating warning light on the dash. Thick red one goes to the starter motor.
Starter motor - thick red one goes to the alternator. Slightly thinner red/black cable with the spade clip is connected to the ignition switch.

Both thin blue from alternator and red/black from starter end in the same plug where they join the main loom.

There is one spade which doesn't have a connection, IIRC this should be nearest the bulkhead. The spade clip should be on the one closest to the engine.

I believe the thick black cable is from the battery, although Haynes shows it as red.

[PeteG40]

if i were you i'd put your battery on charge overnight with a proper charger to see if it regains charge - they dont like being flat, i recently killed one by leaving my lights on and it wouldn't take charge after that.

[g40willa]

I ran mine on a flat battery and it ran like an old rabid dog, the bad kind, as soon as I put some jump-leads on from a truck battery (which was fully charged) the revs picked up, and ran smoother and higher. These engines seem to love a good battery. HATE a duff one.

[jake_smith]

well i just jumped started it off my dads van (big mercades) and it ran smoothly while on the jump leads for a few mins. Then i took them off and it ran smoothly again!

so i literally took i for a 2mins drive and boost wouldnt kick in at all it just splutterd so i come back and you could tell it was starting to struggle to idle , so i held the revs on at 2000rpm and by ITSELF it would drop to about 1200 then come back to 2000 it did that for abouttt 1 min. And then it was fine again.. , so i took it round the block and you could tell it wanted to die.. but i was just driving it abit harsh to get it back home. so as soon as i pulled on the drive it died! I then tried to start it again and it wouldnt even turn over man! just made a iwwwwwwwwwwwww noise like a electricy noise. Now i 100% have the wires on right i know that for a fact.

But for some reason it just wont charge!!!! Oh and my battery light is on my dash, and ive just had a new alternator and battery thats only 3 days old but it IS dead. So i tried another battery with abit of juice in it and it did exactly the same thing.

Pissing me off now , thinking about selling the dam thing

[hayesey]

if the battery is knackered then it wont run right, Digifant gets the hump if it doesn't have a good 12v going to it.  If a multimeter reads less than 13v across the battery terminals with the engine running and various ancillaries turned on (such as heater blower, rear screen heater, headlights etc...) then you'll not have a happy engine.

[PeteG40]

how good are the earths - coil to gearbox and charger to chassis? these can cause sh1t running

[vwmk3jon]

Belts tight enough? Mine ran like shit at springfest after afew dramas with the battery and belt!

[jake_smith]

yup belt tight enough

well anyway! gopt a BRAND new battery again as mine was that dead it wouldnt charge ahain and got a volt meter on the new battery while running and its reading 12v so thats not good enough as it whould be reading abouttt 13-14? so ive had a new battery AND new alternator. so wtf is the problem. All connecting are fine and i cant see no damage to any of the wires anywhere! this is proper doing my head in now , im considering selling it as i just need a car to get around and cant keep getting these crappy buses haha.

any ideas people ? is there something else that controlles the charging? Ive checked all fuses , all earth etc etc etc and there good. Midland vw reckon its the alternator... but i seriously cant see it being that as it was refurbished yesteday and come back to me looking brand new!

[PeteG40]

seriously - check your earths!!!!!!

[jake_smith]

haha , ok ill go check them now (Y) but im pretty sure there fine :|

[jake_smith]

oj wait , is there one attached to the back of the block anywhere?

ta

[jake_smith]

Ok , so i just started checking the wiring from the alternator to the plug. and its fine.. everything is in the right place eg red on starter etc . blue think wire carrying on into plug.

I then get to the plug and the fattish red and black wire going into the main loom corretc? yes.

Anyway , it goes with all its little wire freinds in its oem casing through the bulk head and just before the fuse box i split the casing apart to see if the red/black thickinsh wire is to be seen. and guess what i cant see it anywhere! i can see a black a red wire but its not as fat as the one at the plug. So either it thins down into a smaller diameter wire or it disserpiers. heres a pic>..

[jake_smith]

Theres the pluh with the blue wire and fattish black/red wire. Now it goes in its oem casing though the bulk head and it MUST end up here in this next pic as it cant go anywhere!!



But its no where to be seen , its not in that fat bunch of wires (thin blue one is) but that fattish black/red wire isnt there.. theres just a smaller version that goes into that plug as you can see (i think you can see in the pic)

any idea? anychance someone could go look how many positive wires there are on there battery? thanks

[jake_smith]

Ok hahahah , ignore that post! ive just found that fat black wire. abit further down the line it brakes off into 2 small black and red wires. One goes into fues box while the other goes into the ecu. is this correct?