Adrenaline rush ... Oh No Not Again

[Adrian Southgate]

So, happily sitting in the office, pokey room, front of the house when I hear a car starting, or attempting to start outside, thought to my self ... sounds like my Sierra... why would some prat try to nick that?.. Grabbed the mag light and rushed outside to find the car attempting to self start, full of plastic smoke and being rather toxic, enter headless chicken mode for 30 seconds rushing to get the keys, threw some large heavy objects out of the rear with amazing ease and ripped up the floor plate to get yank the battery lead off.

Total time elapsed less than 3 minutes.

Total damaged caused... toasted wiring loom and a lingering bad smell.

Could have been a whole lot worse as theres 5 litres of tesco's finest unleaded in a can in the back.

 

Anyone got a premier loom for a MK2 escort going begging?

[Dave Adams]

if i had known i would have said........old engines do not like semi or fully synthetic oils....it must be 100% mineral oils for xflows or the like.

this has been fairly common knowledge in the mechanics game for 20 odd years now.

[Adrian Southgate]

Not a problem Wayne.

1.5l in before I left work, took it easy all the way home, light flickered once on the last but one turn to my house.

Stopped the car in the drive and looked underneath to find oil dripping from the drain hole in the bellhousing, all along the gearbox and fairly well spread over the underside of the car so pretty sure its inside the bellhousing. Has to be either the crankshaft seal or the sump gasket at the rear of the block. Seems to me I'll be busy doing that come the weekend then. Fiddlesticks.

[Adrian Southgate]

Well that cheered me up Wayne lol... Seeing as by the time I get home I might have to go shopping for a new one :(

[Adrian Southgate]

I appreciate the thought Dave but you need to get proper money for that

[Dave Adams]

My Pinto out of the Legerra will be sold soon it runs very well no smoke or oil leaks, might even be from a 1974 2.0L RS Escort (manual came with car with a receipt in it, right for the build date for the car)

[Adrian Southgate]

I noticed my oil light flickering on the way home last night so decided to check the oil... what oil?

Seems like the rear crankshaft seal has gone on the sierra which means either box out or engine out neither of which I have time to do in one night... this discovery was of course accompanied by a lot of swear words which I won't repeat. I can't take time off, leggy is still off the road and i'm well peeved. means i'll be leaking oil all over until the weekend... not impressed.

[Adrian Southgate]

I have spent all day playing with electric spaghetti and am pleased to say it's better than I expected with most of the damage being under the bonnet and just inside the cabin. I still have to work my way across above the column, all of about 6 inches of dense packed loom. The worst of the damage is the start wire, alternator signal wire and a bunch of earths which have been completely destroyed where the loom goes into the bulkhead so every wire that goes forward has had to be cut and joined in proper plastic spade terminal connectors. I've stripped the engine loom back and will re-run all the wires back into the cabin, replacing any that are too short.

IF it had been old PVC wiring I would have lost the car and god knows what else, thankfully its made from the fire resistant thinwall wire and has survived really well. Chalk one up for Premier on the survival front.

[Adrian Southgate]

I emailed Alan at premier last night, no reply as yet.

I'm pretty certain I know the cause, the interior light wiring is on a permanent live and from what I can see through crispy and charred insulation it follows that route, don't know why the fuse didn't blow though. I have some slack under the dash but its cable tied up. I may be able to use the slack to make up for the missing bit and cut out the damage, re terminate in spade terminals in blocks of 4.6 or 8 as I have those in the garage. the difficult bit is going to be testing all the wires with a bulb / meter to see if they earth further up the loom, I know the starter wire will be shot as it was quite happily turning over by its self and at one point actually started and was running. Must have managed to get to the coil wires as well. I have a bag of old looms including a ford Sierra one which is partially stripped, that will have the right colour and gauge wiring to do the repairs.

The important thing is no one is hurt, the car isn't badly damaged and a valuable lesson has been learned, yes I will fit a battery cut off inside the car with easy access from the drivers side, plenty of room left on the tunnel.  I have the right terminals and some cable.

This was a brand new, when fitted, premier loom as I refuse to argue with old dirty wiring. Shame if they have ceased trading. On the other hand I sense a business opportunity if they have as no one else offers the same service for under £175 for a basic loom. Who knows, I'll see what Alan says when he rep[lies to my email.Friday looks to be wet and cold, as does the weekend.

[Dave Price]

That sounds like a nightmare

[Dave Adams]

a total rewire ala the article i wrote is not as daunting as at first it seems......

escort ignition switches are prone to frying them selves.....might be where you problem lies.