Can anyone out there give advice please

The electrics on my Felicia T reg are mis-behaving. It started with the air bag light staying on combined with the radio flipping on and off and the headlights fading when changing gear. Then the headlights failed - side lights still work as does all other electrics it seems. However, dashboard switches get very hot and it stinks.

Hi Margaret,

Have a look for water in the fuse box. Soraz was having electrical problems yesterday and put up a post about it. The fuse box is in the front passenger footwell just below the glove compartment. If there's water in it, the windscreen is leaking (a common problem on Felicias) and is causing electricity to flow where it shouldn't.

Hope this helps.

Autoglass had several goes at mine after a windscreen replacement. At the last attempt the technician reckoned the problem in torrential rain was the plastic "well" by the wipers because he had fully checked the windscreen seal. He had a go at that for me. A colleague had a similar problem on a Focus where the area was called something like the "scuppers".

Thankyou chaps for the ideas. Thinking back now you have mentioned it, the problem started the day after my daughter had hosed it down.

I will pass on yr suggestions to my son who suggested I contacted the forum. He told me there were some clever people out there.

Regards

Margaret

To follow up my story, I opened the bonnet and the doors and the fusebox and let it dry out for a day. Upon inspection it turned out that it wasn't the windscreen seal itself (or atleast i don't think so), but rather the piece of plastic leading up to the window that had detached.

That plastic also had a rubber seal onto the bonnet, and that seal was loose.

Anyways, after drying it out, the car worked flawlessly. I've now tried applying liquid rubber (silicone) to the join between windscreen and plastic and between plastic and seal.

Also, I've covered the bottom part of the motor area (passenger side, right above the fuse box), with silicone, in the area that was dripping wet.

On top of this, I think I will cut some tarp to take away most of the water before it hits the bottom of the engine area.

Its not pretty, but I hope it will work. (I bought the car cheap, and I'm not all that hot for spending big bucks in a garage yet).

Interestingly enough, i noticed that the battery and windshieldwiper engine looked brand new. Almost like the previous owner had this problem incessently, but the garage failed to look for water in the fusebox, and simply sold him replacement parts. :eek: