1992 2.1 Td Estate, Electrics failing

HELP!!

Last week the rear wiper failed. Early this week the indicators failed. This morning the computer display failed. On the way home this evening the battery warning light started to glow, and the brake warning light could just about been seen to flicker if you looked really hard.

I understand that these vehicles are afflicted by poor earthing. I was wondering if this particular model is one of them. Does anyone know? And if so where are the earth points to be found?

A quick check revealed no open cct fuses and the alternator belt is intact.

Anything electrical that fails on the tailgate is usually caused by the wires that go from the body to the tailgate breaking where they cross the gap, if you pull out the rubber boot you can usually see the broken wires. As for your other problems, these could be caused by bad earthing, on the Mk2 there were several seperate earthing points on the near side inner wing which improved matters but on your car many connections go to the same point, if you look behind the n/s headlamp I think there is an earth connection, if so, undo it, clean all the lead ends and replace applying some grease, this should prevent future corrosion.

Peter.N.

Jim,

The S1's were notorious for their bad electrics but especially for the bad earthing.

There are about 7 earthing locations around the car. Some locations have multiple earth points. I've never had an S1 so these locations are based on my knowledge of Series 2 cars:

There are multiple earthing points on the front inner wings both offside and nearside. You'll find them behind the headlights and forward of the LHM tank.

There are earthing points on the rear inner wings accessible from the hatches used to access the lighting clusters.

There's an earthing point inside the boot lid and up behind the interior light.

For each of them you need to remove them first, clean them up with a combination of wire brush and emery cloth and grease them well (even better if with an electrically conductive grease).

Although this is not guaranteed to solve your problem its your best starting point given the model's electrical history.

Whilst you're at it there are two reasonably thick cables jointed at the -ve battery terminal together with the very thick one which goes to the engine for the starter motor. Those two cables are earthed on the body just forward of the LHM tank. They are prone to corrosion.

Hope this helps. If you clean up all these connections and you still have a problem just let us know.

Cheers

noz