Newbie with GTi dismay :(

Flibble

Flibble

HI all,
Have recently bought a shiney red GTi as a work runabout to replace my old MX-6 which was getting a lil' tired, it has surprisingly little rust, is super clean inside and out, and I fancied a hatchback as a change to my usual coupes - after looking at a few, I decided I liked the looks of the Almera most and knew the SR20 was usualy a bullet proof motor, I must say the first drive home I thought it was great :)

That's kinda where the love affair stopped though :( Went to start it in the morning and battery was flat, charged it, started fine then was flat again the next day so now Ive replaced it, another £70 :(
Drove 100 miles, parked up and heres the crucial part that concerns me.... turned the ignition off (to acc, not right off) without killing my headlights and the electrics all died (including dash lights, central locking etc. ) ...
Unplugged battery and poked about for 5 mins, re-connected and hey presto, back to life. It does however do this every single time I have the headlights on without the engine running and it's a right pain in the a@@#!
Oh, the NATS is also fubar so I have to use the key, not the fobs to lock/unlock which I've seen is relatively common now I've scanned the forum, lol :), I can live with that however!

Any suggestions as to what the whole headlights killing my car scenario could be?
I'm just finishing my second kitcar build from scratch (220bhp, 590kgs, RWD and much fun) including making a custom Saab EFI loom from scratch, so I'm not a car numpty (well, not all the time :) ), but this one has me stumped and wondering if it's been heard of before I start digging in the loom - or maybe its NATS connected?

Anyway, soz for the long winded 1st post - I'm bored at work and tend to ramble....

Cheers!
Kev
 
sounds to me like the altornator is fubard and not chargin the battery..

headlights wise sounds a mystery to me though...
 
Hello and welcome, Sorry i can't offer you any soloutions to your problems, but i'm sure someone can.
 
Doesnt sounds like the NATs is the probelm really...

Something on the car may be drawing current if the alternator is working

Does it have an aftermarket cd player?

Main thing is though, Check the fan belt is not worn and is spinning while the engine runs and not slipping, and if you can check the voltages around the battery

Hope you get it sorted, these are amazing cars :)
 
Cheers for the replies :)
Sorry for missing a bit of info, had checked the alternator and was fine at 14.55V while running.
I had Installed an aftermarked CD pleyer/amp the day I got the car (last week) so unfortunatly I don't know if the problem was there beforehand, bugger.
I did however take the fuse out of the power leads to the amp to knock that peice out of the equation with no joy. I also turned radio/heater/everything off and the headlights still kill the car if the engines not running. I can also turn ON everything possible and not have and problems so it's not just voltage load that does it, guess I have a short in the headlight wires somehere? although they work fine when I'm driving which kind of goes against tht theory :( I'm officialy stumped, lol.
Cheers all
Kev

Edit to say: Just shut my door with the keys in the car and it locked itself, hehe, good job I had my spares in my works toolbox, phew!
 
I pretty much say this to everyone with these type of symptoms as it happened to me, check the main battery fuse for corrossion. Mine on my old car was bodged as it had previously blown and the new attempt at a fuse was corroded on the terminals. This never turns out to be the problem but its a quick thing to check. Other than that check the headlight wiring faults, shorts etc.

Oh and the door locking itself problem is very common. Take off the door card and attack the mechanism with lots of wd40 followed by some silicone spray.
 
as above with the centrel locking, as for the head light fault, check the conections on the back of the headlight as these have a habbit of melting and shorting out
 
Simcard said:
I pretty much say this to everyone with these type of symptoms as it happened to me, check the main battery fuse for corrossion. Mine on my old car was bodged as it had previously blown and the new attempt at a fuse was corroded on the terminals. This never turns out to be the problem but its a quick thing to check. Other than that check the headlight wiring faults, shorts etc.

Oh and the door locking itself problem is very common. Take off the door card and attack the mechanism with lots of wd40 followed by some silicone spray.
Click to expand...

That WAS the problem on my old one, grey 75A fuse in the box next to the battery, was playing hell with my electrics.
 
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