Car won't start - no power to dash but turns over ok....

Standard Toaster

Hi lads,

Here's one for ya. 2002 Impreza
For the last few weeks the speedo on the car would drop to zero and immediately jump back to the current speed.
Might do this 2/3 times on a 15km journey. I figured it was the cold or a bad connection and was meaning to get around to having a proper look. (sensor/under dash etc)

Now yesterday evening while driving on M1 the car lost all power (electric) for about 1/2 a second and then came back on…..cue me changing my boxers! All seemed fine until this morning……the car now won't start.

There's no power to the dash but it will turn over, I guessed maybe the ignition fuse had blown?
I was rushing for work so I just had time to remove + lead from battery for a few mins…no joy.

This evening I had a look at the fuses under the bonnet but I feel they all 'looked' ok. (was dark!)
I reseated most of them and no change. Too dark too see the fuses inside the car.

So what do you think it might be? A bad ground somewhere? A blown fuse??

There is a Apexi turbo timer which does light up and counts down when I remove the keys if that helps in any way.

Thanks in advance!!

2012 Rio

Do you have lights, horn radio etc or is every thing gone.If so it sounds like a fault on the main power circuit.

If you have those but the engine is not starting is could be an ECU issue or it's own power supply. check fuses and all connection in/around fuseboxes and the ecu.

If the worst happens and it's an ECU problem, they can be exhanged for reconditioned ones for a reasonable cost.

Standard Toaster

Just the dash it seems. Internal lights work when I open the door, alarm will go off just fine too with flashing indicators. Seems like it's anything related to the ignition that won't work (radio/heating/dash etc)

I couldn't check all fuses as it does be far too dark when I get home. Will check on Sat I guess.

Cheers for your feedback though.

2012 Rio

Hmm. If it seems to be everything that depends on the key, it could be the key switch. Maybe the reciever ring in the switch might be wonky or the ECU is not recognising the key.
The key itself could also be at fault.

Do you have another spare key that you could try? At least just to rule out a faulty key .

ants09

Dont know about subura's tbh but seems to be crankshaft sensor

Standard Toaster

2012 Rio wrote: »

Hmm. If it seems to be everything that depends on the key, it could be the key switch. Maybe the reciever ring in the switch might be wonky or the ECU is not recognising the key.
The key itself could also be at fault.

Do you have another spare key that you could try? At least just to rule out a faulty key .

Nah, just the one key for her. Hmmmm, maybe it's the immobilizer actually...will add that to list of things to check I guess

ants09 wrote: »

Dont know about subura's tbh but seems to be crankshaft sensor

But would a bad crankshaft sensor also cause the dash not to light up?

Cheers lads.

Standard Toaster

Standard Toaster wrote: »

............



But would a bad crankshaft sensor also cause the dash not to light up?

...........

Nope

Plug

Standard Toaster wrote: »

Hi lads,

Here's one for ya. 2002 Impreza
For the last few weeks the speedo on the car would drop to zero and immediately jump back to the current speed.
Might do this 2/3 times on a 15km journey. I figured it was the cold or a bad connection and was meaning to get around to having a proper look. (sensor/under dash etc)

Now yesterday evening while driving on M1 the car lost all power (electric) for about 1/2 a second and then came back on…..cue me changing my boxers! All seemed fine until this morning……the car now won't start.

There's no power to the dash but it will turn over, I guessed maybe the ignition fuse had blown?
I was rushing for work so I just had time to remove + lead from battery for a few mins…no joy.

This evening I had a look at the fuses under the bonnet but I feel they all 'looked' ok. (was dark!)
I reseated most of them and no change. Too dark too see the fuses inside the car.

So what do you think it might be? A bad ground somewhere? A blown fuse??

There is a Apexi turbo timer which does light up and counts down when I remove the keys if that helps in any way.

Thanks in advance!!

The ignition will stay on even if its turned with an uncoded key, damaged key or even a screw driver.
1)Your ignition is switching off even now and again.
2)Your lights come on when opening the doors, that has got nothing to do with the ignition so we are making progress.
3)The chances are the engine cut out for half a second but it would have started running straight away because the engine was 'turning over' due to the momentum of the engine running in the first place.

First thing I'd do is strip down the plastic cover around the steering column and look for cut wires or shorts. Also they may not be any fault codes with this problem.
Good luck.

Standard Toaster

I'll be able to do some proper troubleshooting on her Saturday. Cheers for all your help, will let you know how I get on

d o'c

unplug the TT, and reconnect the cars orignal connectors under the steering column. I'd say there's a relay fault within the TT

Standard Toaster

Update:-

Ok so went out to her after lunch today and she's back to her old self, issue has disappeared :-/ Feck, was kinda hoping it was still giving me bother, no idea now what the issue was?
All I got done today was to remove each fuse and sand the contacts. Added a drop of lithium grease to them too as I went.
I also cut and re-spiced the wires going into each battery terminal and covered them over too with the grease. I checked as much as I could, nothing obvious *shrug*
I'll start her again first thing tomorrow morning and see if it's the cold that causing any issues.

Bizzare problem. Will fire new drop-links into her too tomorrow.

Cheers lads.

d o'c

The brown pants moments are the ign circuit being broken momentarily by the TT
The starter to ign switch wire is just linked with the TT loom I'd say, that's why you could crank the engine when the fault happens

if it's not a poor installation,(if it is this could be the cause) and the correct connectors have been used, 2min job to remove TT/ reconnect originals.

you may have a genuine unit with a fault, but worth a read if it's similar to your model.


http://realorfakeitem.com/real-vs-fake/apexi-turbo-timer-id25

Standard Toaster

Cheers for the help so far.

All was fine at weekend. Drove her this morning and she cut out again on the M1. After I changed my pants I took what d o'c said on board and looked under the dash at the turbo timer. I fiddled a minute with the wires from it and the dash lit up, so deffo an issue with the TT I think. The radio stayed on the whole time, it's just the instrument cluster that seems to die. (along with the car)
My TT looks to be a real one from the links you supplied, cheers again for that. Will have a proper look at the fitting later today and re-wire as needed.

Hopefully that's the end of it.

listermint

Are you confident that all your issues dont stem from battery problems.

Slight drop in voltage / current can give various issues like what you are having.

Is it the original battery in the car ??

Standard Toaster

listermint wrote: »

Is it the original battery in the car ??

Battery is about 4months old. I'm fairly confident it's not the battery