Immobiliser misery and other fixes

 A brief period of refusal to start occurred twice.

First, complete lifelessness. Various people posted things online about bypassing the immobiliser. After fiddling around I can confirm that it’s vital for the battery terminals to be completely clean. 

By the way , the alternator output goes to the car via the post connector.

Second, starter motor failure. The symptoms were classic flat battery but this was disproved eventually, the motor was physically worn but replaced for £45 which is a great deal. This sort of joy comes from having old common cars.

Did I mention the exhaust catalytic converter is similarly cheap?

Cars designed before 1998 generally have non CAN BUS wiring which in my mind categorises them as Classic Cars. Mine has a bewildering circuit diagram, but after a new indicator stalk was fitted to solve a worn out head lamp dip switch mystery, I was suddenly proudly claiming to have a French car of a certain vintage with all its electric parts working correctly!! There’s plenty of contacts to wear out or corrode.

I knew a colleague with a very unreliable Mk3 Clio and electric faults upset him! It is worth remembering the a common cause of electrical failure is where movement occurs, and considering a broken wire, any wire that frequently has to flex such as by the hinge of a door it is liable to break because copper work-hardens if its strands aren’t fine and annelid.

Another Mk3 owner I know simply got soaked by the leaks and didn’t YouTube the remedy!