Austarion

Hi, long time reader.... not much poster... I will get straight too it.

The car was running fine until... smoke from under the bonnet!!! The cause was an electrical short, the power wire from the after market imobiliser. This wire is conected directly from the unit to the battery. The car was then driven home, the imobiliser connected to start the car, then quickly disconected.

The imobiliser was then removed, and the OEM ignition switch reconected. Turn the key and nothing not even accessorys.

I then disconected the ignition switch from the wiring loom. The four wires coming from the loom are white with black stripe, black with yellow stripe, black with white stripe and blue with white stripe. I tested these four wires and ALL GOTO GROUND (ie. one multimeter probe on the body and one on the wire... and all came up with zero ohms), and I cannot find a live 12v wire anywhere on the car (apart from the battery).

I have no idea what is wrong.... my only guess being some kind of giant mind melding short which has grounded my car now rather perminantly. After looking at the wiring diagrams, I think I may have a blown main fuse. I cannot find this fuse... even if sombody could tell me where on the car it is, that would be a great start. Maybe I have symptoms of another problem altogether... really any information would be of much help :)

Anyone feel free too contact me if you want too have a look at the car, its in South Yarra behind the Jam Factory. My phone number is 0419 589 479 and I am Chris. Or I can call you, just leave your name and number.

hello melted one!
here are some things for you to check:

1. if VERY original condition, there is/was a main fusable link from the battery to the electrical box between the battery and the left hand guard. this is basically just a piece of insulated wire acting as a fuse. i have never seen a staz with this still intact and fitted.

2. remove the cover to the electrics mentioned above.
there are 4 fusable links here (green wires with large quick connect type terminals). they are for pop ups, windows, rear defogger and (i forget).
your fault is probably not in this area.

3. under the air filter box is:
3A - a main connection from the battery to the cabin and alternator
and
3.B - 3 fusable links, which feed the ignition switch, the main fuse box and the ecu (i think)

your problem is probably in this area. note that the connections around note 3 can become unreliable when subjected to 20 years of high current.

Wow thankyou merlin! I think I have it nailed. Please tell me if my assumptions are correct.

Found the conections under the airbox (1 red 2 green wires from the battery too the loom) and tested for resistance. I found from here into the car was fine but from there too the battery was still giving no resistance.

I tested the alternator and from red 2 black there was no resistance... this I am definitly definitly sure (I think) is not correct (this would explain all my grounds on the loom)! Just wanted to check with you guys before I pulled the alternator for renewal/replacement.

Merlin again thankyou!! Also Kon thankyou if you are reading this! Fitted the exhaust manifold and it was great. Sorry I didnt get back just to say everything was ok.

I have 2 Starions which both had the main fusible link intact (well, up until a few weeks ago :)).

The smoke would probably have been this main link or one of the others going up in smoke. Check for ground shortage at the wire that comes off the +ve terminal of the battery (not the thick wire that goes to the starter). Check all the fusible links for continuity. Unfortunately ground shorts can be difficult to find. I was lucky - found my dipstick was touching the back of the alternator :)

hcca wrote:I was lucky - found my dipstick was touching the back of the alternator :)

Was that so you could warm the engine oil before you started the car?

I warm the oil in my car every morning by draining it out and sticking it in the microwave for a few minutes. This way I make sure that I always have nice warm oil in the engine. My housemates complain about the smell, but I like my engine more than them :)

coletrex, not realy following your red to black comment.
JA staz originaly have white wire to the alternator, and back to the electrical box thing next to the battery.
sorry, i have not got my diagrams handy.

I hope didnt jump the gun a bit :O Not actually sure which colour the wires were comming from the alternator. But there were two of them, and when I probed them for resistance I got zero ohms (which I assumed was a short inside the alternator).

I had the dipstick/alternator problem as well. When I took off the dipstick while changing the turbo, I somehow caused an engine fire when it contacted the alternator. bonus :)

you didnt just hack the imob out did you? coz if you look under all the tape the main ign wires are cut and need rejoining. by the sound of it you have done this already but i only mentioned it as an opener to launch into a rant.

rant as follows:
WTF is wrong with imob installing ppl? when you fail school and go to centerlink and they tell you that u'r too stupid to live and its somewhat of a miracle you have the brain cells needed to breath does this automatically make you a qualified imob installer? coz i have had 2 fires, 2 outright failures causing the car to be stuck somewhere, 1.6bil weird elec problems due to previously mentioned lameass dickwad imob installer and his shitty work and just the simple fact that the underside of any dash looks like something my monkey has been turning into industrial art. i understand they need to do things like use all black wire and 2 of every wire and everything in one ball of tape to confuse wannabe car thief, but really, some of this shit............. i can keep going if you want.... sorry to hijack your thread...... again..... I’ll go now......

That's why I DIY.. at least I understand my own fuckups :)

well, i mostly understand my own fuckups, but sometimes they get a bit out of hand.
scum, feel free to have a major rant on other peoples fuckups as they affect you, i hear its better than jail, and we get the benefit of good advice, and entertainment (bonus!)

Heres my rant:

[rant]

after they installed my alarm, my dash lights, left rear tail and front parker are stuffed. Shove any fuse into the fuse holder and itll burn. Shove some fencing wire in there and it went up in a puff of smoke (I kid you not!). As it stands i STILL dont know where the short is coming from. Bloody bastards.

:x

[/rant]

tom

Shorting dipstick onto back of alternator must be a popular f'up. I did this one recently too when changing the alternator belt. Fusible link went up in smoke, but I managed to solder it back together again. I'll disconnect the battery before moving the alternator again!

Hi, just a thought, if you are measuring resistance values make sure you disconnect all power to the car first. If there is a voltage source you will probably measure a resistance other than the component you are trying to measure due to parallel paths. Disconnect the battery then test for resistances. This does however produce fairly useless results. What you should do is check for voltage levels at different points and trace the fault from battery to the source of the problem. Wherever you have +12V where you shouldnt, there is an open cct. If you measure 0V where there should be voltage there is a short to ground.
Hope this helps.
Steve

Speaking of funny electrical problems , here's a weird one and how I found the problem. :

My boost sensor would go off the scale whenever I coasted down a hill or backed the throttle off quickly. This was causing my ECU to pump too much fuel with a closed throttle and made the car burble and fart a bit when going down through the gears. I dismantled my boost sensor only to find it had been leaking a bit , and some water had caused some corrosion. After removing the corrosion and removing the crappy glue shit that mitsubishi like to put on their PCB's , I resoldered every joint on the board , and replaced a capacitor. Re-assembled the whole lot , plugged it in and turned the ignition on. The boost guage seemed to work ok until I started the car. Then it played up like before. I removed the boost sensor from the firewall and it ran perfectly !. Diagnosis : bad earth !

I made a continuity check from the battery -'ve to the chassis (where it bolts on near the battery) with the ignition off and 0 ohms resistance was the result. I then checked it with the ignition on and 180 ohms was read !. It turned out that the earth battery lead was highly resistive under load and upon changing it , it has changed the whole electrical characteristics of my starion (like the headlights slightly dimming on & off when my indicators were running.)

So there were 2 lessons from that one : 1: Check for water leaks in your boost sensor box , I repaired VR4Starions boost sensor a few weeks ago and it also had water damage (as did his spare one which was totally destroyed by corrosion) so it seems to be a common starion fault , and make sure you have a GOOD earth from the battery to the chassis , don't just inspect it and say :"looks like a good connection" , if you own a starion then you must own a decent multi-meter aswell.