Hi guys, Im new and pretty useless with cars so please be patient...

I have a fabia 1.4 16v on a 51 plate, this morning when i went to start it nothing happened... there was a click and i lost all power. When i went to start it the first click lit the dash up, there were no signs of anything a miss, then on the second click for ignition there was a click no starter motor kicked in then everything on the dash went blank, including the clock and mileage counter.

I popped the hood and went to find a spanner to disconnect the battery when i returned though i noticed the clock and mileage had miraculously re-appeared. I decided to try again but the same thing happened. Then i disconnected the negative terminal, re-connected it and wollah reluctantly it started...

The battery is less then 4 months old as the previous one had more bubbles in the acid than a mint aero and ive had it serviced twice in the 8 months ive had it. I did a long journey ( approx 45 miles) without fault last night too. So, is it the immobiliser? Ive noticed it step in a few times recently but the problem seemed to have gone away. No doubt the problem will go away by the time anyone notices this thread haha!

Any suggestions would be greatly recieved!

Tomskiyy

check the two wires that go across the front of the gearbox, these have a tendency to break and one cause the alternator not to charge properly

if scanned you might see something about lad sense implausible signal if one of the wires is broken

hmm ok do i need to raise the car in order to look? i havent got that ability if so? i suppose i could also check the battery to see if there is any charge stored on it, if the alternator wasnt working that might show a low reading too...

Ill have a look at lunch time im at work at the moment... :(

thanks for your input though greatly appreciated.

_{just a quick update, for people in future as nothing is more irritating than to find a thread without a solution...}

_{so i looked at the two wires and they were fine, disconnecting the negative terminal on the battery for 10secs, resetting the ecu seemed to work. im lead to believe it was a fault with the immobilisor somewhere along the line. i have no idea why it kicked in I have started using what i think is the master key to unlock/start the car and the problem has gone away as quickly as it came perhaps the battery is dead in the key... a few other things seem better now too, the steering seems more responsive and the electric windows work as they should!}

_Tomskiyy

Hi guys, Im new and pretty useless with cars so please be patient...

. I decided to try again but the same thing happened. Then i disconnected the negative terminal, re-connected it and wollah reluctantly it started...

Point of my post is to say you removed the correct lead first. When disconnecting battery, IT'S A MUST to disconnect the earthed lead FIRST. ( The one connected to the body).That way once the negative ( in most modern cars) is removed ,there's no circuit from the positive to body. With the negative connected, there's 12v at a LOT of amps between body and positive.

More than likely a bad connection on the terminal. The immobiliser doesn't stop the engine from starting, it will start then cut out after 3 seconds.