2007 Honda Accord

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Into our workshop this week was this Honda with a parasitic drain which was switching between 200 ma and 400 ma at regular intervals. The first thing we had to do is to find which circuit the discharge was on. Once this was found by checking which fuse when removed made the discharge dissappear, we had to trace all the components on thus circuit.

Due to the nature of the discharge we didn’t suspect wiring as these type of discharges tend to be more erratic. So we started the process of disconnecting the various components. When all the components were disconnected the discharge was still present. But through experience we knew that one of the systems on the circuit which was the Stereo/satnav system would also have Bluetooth capabilities and the module for this was buried behind the dashboard. When we eventually got access to it, it was warm to the touch even though the car had been off for a while. The component was disconnected as the customer had no use for it, the car reassembled and a happy customer picked up the car knowing his problems had been sorted.

Into our workshop this week was this BMW X5. The customer complained of the airbag light on since he had the car valeted. A simple code read on the vehicle identified the passenger occupancy sensor fault. Which is the device that tells the car if somebody is sat in the front passenger seat.
The first thing we checked is the connections under the seat in case they had been disturbed during the valet. All was Ok.
Next we mimicked the resistance that the sensor would have by unplugging the sensor and replacing it with a resistor of equal value. The airbag light went out and acted as it should.
So a new sensor was sourced from the dealer, the seat removed and stripped (not an easy job).

The sensor seen here can be damaged easily by kneeling in the centre of the seat cracking the delicate circuit

Into our workshop this week was this VW. Both doors on the drivers side were completely dead,central locking, windows, door mirror all dead. Knowing how these things work were confident that if we could get the drivers door back on line the rear door would start working again. So we stripped down the drivers door and checked the wiring through the hinge for any breaks, all was Ok. Next we got the wiring diagram for the door systems so we could check all the correct feeds and earth’s were present and also check the can high and can low signals with our pico scope.

All connections were good so the problem had to be the door module. A new module was sourced from the agent, fitted and coded to the car.
Everything on the drivers door all worked perfectly and the rear door came back online also.

The door module is also the electric window motor.

Into our workshop this week was this nice 911 with electric window trouble. With the drivers side door stripped down the mechanism was found to be faulty. We managed to remove the mech and repair it saving the customer substantial expense of replacement mechanism. Another satisfied customer.

Into our workshop this week was this 2007 Ford Focus TDCI which would not run it had been to 2 other garages that had given up and said it must be an electrical problem. The symptoms were it would almost start or fire briefly then cut out. We plugged our diagnostic machine in and there were no relevant codes present. So we did some initial tests to check injection pulse, fuel pressure and various sensor readings. All seemed fine. Through experience in dealing with these types of engines we know that EGR valves can effect the starting if they are stuck open as they should be closed at idle. So we disconnected an EGR valve pipe and cranked the car. Hey presto it fired and ran. A new valve was sourced in this case it comes with the inlet manifold which makes it trickier to fit as the turbo and exhaust have to be moved to gain access. But again a good professional job was done and the customer was very happy as the previous garages had had the car for 2 weeks trying to solve the problem!

Here it is with the EGR removed

Note the heavy carbon build up in the inlet ports of the old manifold this is mainly due to the EGR valve resurculatting the exhaust gases. An oil change and engine flush are always recommend in these cases.

Today into our workshop was this 2009 volvo V70. The customer had broke down in Scotland on holiday,the history with the fault was that the car had gone flat over the period of a couple of hours the AA had come out to it and got it going and couldn’t find any faults with it. The car had been Ok for a couple of days but then had been completely dead. A local garage had been out to it first saying it was the battery,that hadn’t worked so they then put a startermotor on and that hadn’t worked. The garage then recommended taking it to a volvo dealer, but because the customer had used us with success previously he wanted it recovered to our workshops. The first thing we did was to plug in our diagnostic machine there were various voltage related codes and ecu communication codes. One thing we have come across with some later Volvos is if the battery voltage drops it can corrupt the immobliser and the system would need a reflash (reprogram of the ecu). This was our initial thought because of the flat battery a couple of days earlier. So to confirm this the easiest place to start was the startermotor circuit. We fed the starter direct and it cranked over but still didn’t start. So we started tracing the circuit to find out where the power for the starter comes from. The starter is fed via a main ignition relay,we linked out this relay and hey presto!the vehicle started. So now we had to figure out what triggered this relay. With the correct wiring diagrams we worked out that once the ignition key is inserted the BCM confirms the key is correct and activates part of the ECU which then sends out a negative to this relay which in turn sends a positive feed back to the ECU activating the rest of the system starting the car. So with a pin diagram for the ECU we traced the wirer to the ignition relay and a break in the wiring was found under the airbox caused due to a cable tie holding the loom too tight and crushing the loom.
As you can see the modern vehicle is a complex machine with many modules and ECU’s that all have to be communicating successfully for the car to work. Here at WIDNES AUTO ELECTRICAL we are specialists at this kind of work so you can be sure of a quick and cost-effective solution to your problems.

Into our workshop this week was a Skoda with intermittent non start. Intermittent problems are tricky to find but luckily we have a lot of experience with VAG vehicles and some investigation found a problem with the gauges as these contain the immobliser. We removed the gauges and stripped them down and repaired the circuit board which cured the problem and saved the customer the expense of a replacement set of gauges.

Two old classics in this week with wiring issues. The Porsche 944 had sunroof issues, the customer had fitted new motors and switches but the fault remained. Broken wiring turned out to be the problem. With the Morris van the customer had stripped the vehicle to respray and had put the wiring back incorrectly and had burnt the loom. So we cut out the burnt wiring and worked out where they had wired it wrong and got it up and running. Two happy enthusiasts picked up their pride and joys ready for the summer.

Today in our workshop this JAG XKR came in for a softtop conversion. These lovely machines strangely never came with remote operation as standard. With this conversion the owner now has full open facility where all the windows come down and roof opens with 1touch of a button on the key fob and the same for closure. Also the internal roof switch is now 1 touch rather than having to press and hold it for the duration of the roof operation. One happy customer was now looking forward to a sunny bank holiday weekend with the roof down.