Alternator Fuse Toasted

[snazbaz]

Hi guys,

Could really do with some pointers on what to check/how to diagnose this problem.

Background info:
Car: mk2 rev2 turbo converted to 3vz-fe
1) A few days ago the power steering stopped working, intermittently for a day then completely dead. May not be related but thought I'd mention it.
2) In the summer when the weather was hot, after car had been running and everything was hot if you stopped the engine and tried to restart it within the first 60 seconds or so of turning it off the starter would struggle.

Problem:
Couple of days ago I turned off the engine while waiting in traffic. Went to restart. Relay would come on and starter would try to move but struggled. Tried to restart 5-6 times and then everything went completely dead with only the battery warning light on the dash. A few minutes before this there was a lovely electrical burning smell (which I thought was the car in front at the time).

While at the side of the road I learnt the following things:
1) Voltage from battery fine
2) No voltage from the point where the battery goes into the rear engine fuse box
3) No voltage from the feed that goes to the starter motor.
4) Hotwiring the battery directly to the rear fuse box fixes the battery light and allows me to try and crank it again, but didn't have enough leads on me to also provide a direct feed to the starter.

On further inspection I have noticed

5) Alternator fuse (120A) is popped. Don't know if this happened originally, or if this was caused by me doing 4) - which in hindsight may have been a bad idea :)

6) Haven't dug to all the difficult to get bits yet, but haven't found any melted plastic yet.

Going to have a proper go at diagnosing/fixing it on the weekend anyone got any ideas of where to start/what to check ?

Thanks,
Ian

[nikwills]

I would check all the major cables to and from the battery ie earth and positive, physically undo them clean the connections and retighten them....and why turn the car off when sitting in traffic? Tests have shown that you don't save any fuel doing this?

[GregLeBon]

Sounds like your alternator coils have gone short circuit?

if the Alt fuse has blown, it must be this, as its the only thing connected to that line, IIRC?

Only a dead short would draw that amount of current.......

[snazbaz]

....and why turn the car off when sitting in traffic? Tests have shown that you don't save any fuel doing this?

If you're sitting in a queue for 10+ minutes at a time I'm pretty sure it saves fuel :)