SomeLinuxGuy

Turns out it was the voltage regulator giving too much voltage in spikes and systems were turning off to protect themselves. It was changed and it's been fine for about a month now.

Hello everyone, I'm having strange, intermittent electrical issues with my Fabia (CGG engine code) and I'm hoping someone here has already had a similar problem and knows the solution. Short version: Dash randomly turns off, power steering randomly goes away, voltage in the electrical system is possibly unstable, sometimes too high to the point of causing damage. Long version: It started this February, or at least that's when the issues became really apparent. I was driving on the highway and the dashboard suddenly went dark for about 1 second, the dials fell back to 0, then it sprung back to life and everything was normal again. All other lights, systems, etc worked normally. It did this twice or maybe three times, then it was fine for about a month. In March, I noticed that sometimes the wipers and windows moved kind of slowly for a while after starting the engine. Also, after about two weeks of using the car I had to charge the battery a bit because the starter felt sluggish. I measured it with a multimeter after starting the engine and the battery wasn't charging at all, even after giving it some gas (~3500 RPM). The charging fault light on the dash was off. Measured it again after a roughly 45-minute trip and it was charging again. Then my dash cam started acting up, randomly turning off. It was wired to the fuse of the rear wiper with a hardwire kit. I tested the camera separately and it was fine, so I assume the (cheap Chinese) hardwire kit was faulty. I disconnected it, took it out, powered it with an external power supply and it gave a very stable 5.2 Volts, so it's fine. I assume it wasn't getting 12V from the fuse in the car. One morning, the dash turned off again for about 2 seconds, and when it turned back on I lost power steering. I pulled over, shut down the engine, restarted it (heh, most basic IT trick) and power steering came back. I changed the main fuse (the big, aluminum(?) one on top of the battery) since I read that can cause issues like this, and had a friend x-ray the old one. It had some very small cracks in it, so that wasn't a bad idea. The battery was being charged again after starting the engine and it also seems like the charging voltage went up a bit (14.1V with the old one, 14.45V with the new). I took the car for several test drives and everything was fine, so I was happy my problem was solved, until this Monday... I started from my usual parking lot and before I even left the lot the dash went dead, along with the power steering. It took about 10-15 seconds for it to come back and when it did, both the power steering the and charging fault lights were on. I shut the car down, started it again and everything was fine (as usual), except for my low beams. I went home, checked my bulbs and they were both burned out, a large chunk missing from the filament. I assume they got more than 12V and couldn't take it. All other lights and fuses are fine. Up until this Monday I assumed something was just loose somewhere, but I think both bulbs burning out at the same time indicates a much, much bigger problem. Now I'm afraid to use the car for fear of something more important and expensive getting overvoltage. So, what could this be? Voltage regulator? Voltage control unit? Sorry for the long post and thanks for any replies in advance!