Hi im new to this site and would like to say hello to all. I am requesting some help on my felica 1.3mpi 98. While driving the car cut out with no power,i lifted the hood and the battery was dry and a little white box on the back of the alternator had exploded ! What is this ? Will this stop my car from starting as i av replaced the battery and the engie turns but its not firing. Checked the plugs and no spark. Any advice please !

It sounds like maybe the diode has exploded? Might be worth checking your fuses incase it's blown one that protects the ecu & now your ecu isn't working? Hopefully someone that knows what they're talking about will come on soon!

Good luck!

Is this similar to "little white box" that exploded?

If yes, that is the voltage regulator. It is in charge with charging the battery at (almost) constant voltage and current.

That poor guy exploded because battery was bad. You need to replace it and check the alternator bridge rectifier. When I say you, in fact I mean a male friend or a car workshop.

I encourage you to learn more about basic car maintenance and basic technical lingo. I mean, I'm really baffled about your innocent belief that an exploded electrical part is not big deal... It's possible you 'killed' the car computer too when you cranked the engine after replacing the battery. I hope you have a fire extinguisher handy, girl...

The more you'll know about your car, the less chance to have heavy financial losses from disregarding basic maintenance rules.. Not to mention car mechanics won't rip you off so easily.

In the nicest possible way adurer, I must point out the the white box is not the voltage regulator, which is the part at the bottom left of your photograph.

Adurer:

Yeah - as Dave said, the voltage reg is combined with the brush pack at the bottom of the pic.

Also, having a penis doesn't mean you can check what's wrong with a car. Nearly all my friends that are male have no clue whatsoever about how to fix cars - indeed I reckon my Mum has more of a clue than most of them. And how do we know that the OP is female? (I'm not here often, so if 'she' has said so, I apologise; either way, the point still stands)

To the OP:

It sounds like the alternator was putting out too high a voltage (hence the battery being dry). It's difficult to know without seeing the car, but it's possible that this has also damaged some of the car's other electrical systems. Check the fuse box (above the front passenger's feet, under the dashboard), but I'm not certain that a fuse would have blown in this sort of situation. Again, I can't be sure and there are other things that would stop the car from running, but it is possible that the ECU that controls the spark and fuel has been damaged. To check what's going on will need a few tools such as a multimeter and knowing what's what in the fuse box - you'd want to check that the fuel pump relay is working as this is something that's easy to check and may help confirm if the ECU is working.

Ok to settle disputes i am male and the box in the picture is correct. I know it is not the voltage regulator but keep getting told it is ! Even a skoda mechanic cant give me a name for it at the dealers. He said he believed it was power regulator also.! I was told that the car should still start without it. i have already checked fuses and there was 1 15 amp blown. I av never used a meter but can get use of one. How do i check the pump relay and ecu ?

Well, being male means you'll be able to fix it, evidently!

I thought that the white box was a capacitor to smooth out interference, but this is based on nothing other than me thinking that.

Get hold of a meter, even a cheap digital one will be fine for fault finding the car. Do you know which fuse was blown?

I think the ECU is checked easiest by function - i.e. if when you crank the engine that it's energising the fuel pump relay, and that it's outputting to the injectors and the coil pack.

First up, if your car an MPi or SPi?

... having a penis doesn't mean you can check what's wrong with a car. Nearly all my friends that are male have no clue whatsoever about how to fix cars. And how do we know that the OP is female?

It's not about how good to maintaining and fixing their cars men are, it's about a general comparison between men and women in that matter. I'm sorry to hear about your friends living on Gilligan Island, but where I live and all my male friends are way more knowledgeable than women in car technical matters. All Internet is full of 'yeah, it's a woman...' videos. Further more, if a mechanic gets a car with oil not changed for 100,000 miles and a blown head gasket, or a bone dry coolant reservoir, he'll know it's a woman driving it. Remember, I'm talking statistics here.

About chrissym being a woman, I guess I was carried away by the typical female nonchalant disregard of a blown electrical part that for any man spells disaster and possibly other parts toasted. But not for a woman, because as long as the makeup mirror is in good order, the car is fine. Further more, the nick is uni-gender, I saw ChrissyM before ChrisSym.

Having settled those things, yeah, my bad about the condenser in the photo above, it was almost midnight when I got out in the rain to take a photo of my car's alternator and I guess I was too tired. At least I found out I'm human too...

Looking at car wiring, I see 'the little white box' C10 is a condenser having a diode in parallel. It's more like a protection against dangerous EMF voltage spikes. Anyway, it's best to get the alternator out and have it checked before frying other circuits too.

Cheers adurer,im glad u's got that woman thing bout me out the way ! Lol. Thats the box im on about but i av looked at around 20 fellys today,same year,same engine but none of them have this box on or even looks like they ever have. I was assured off the local skoda dealer/mech that it is only on a ltd number of cars and wasnt neccesary !? I have put a new coil on,alternator but without white box and ecu.the car now fires but wont run.the fuse for the fuel had blown. Replaced it but still the same.changed the relay for fuel also. Any ideas !

So now you got spark but no fuel and have coil, alternator, ECU, and fuel pump relay all new.

First test: do you hear the fuel pump whirring for like 5 seconds when key on?

If i have key off for a minute or two then turn key on i can hear the whirring then the relay switch click and the car will fire ! If i try it again straight away i hear nothing.

That's normal. Fuel pump doesn't have to compensate for any fuel pressure loss in such a short time.

Now just to be sure I've got it right, your engine starts but dies in a few seconds? If yes, and you have an immobilizer installed, it is immobilizer related.

In reply to djaychela,hi, the fuse that was blew was no 4, 15amp for fuel according to layout. The car is 1.3 mpi.

It is bog standard wiring loom. No c locking,immobiliser airbags or anything !

Then things get tricky because the initial power jolt that blew the cap propagated in all electrical circuits. Some devices escaped, like fuel pump (due to fuse F4) but who knows if other devices were equally lucky. I'd say it is time to unfold the wiring charts and check in turn every sensor, throttle body, injector. Can you handle that? Need any wiring?

Edited 9 April, 201313 yr by adurer

I wouldnt know where to start, i can borrow a v meter but have never used one or know how !

Does sound like the immobiliser.

Does the car fire up, run for a second or so, and then die suddenly (i.e. it dies as if it has been turned off, not as if it's still trying to run but peters out)?

it just fires up and then dies immedietly and doesnt even give u a chance to open the throttle ! It doesnt have an immobiliser to my knowledge and i have it over a year now. I thought it may be a overload because this new alternator hasnt got the little box (electroic regulator). It is the same whether the alternator is wired up or not !

Edited 9 April, 201313 yr by chrissym

AFAIK all UK Felicias have immobilisers,it's a passive system which works via a chip in the key and a box which senses it and sends a code to the ECU. If the chip isn't detected, isn't right, or the immo box has failed, it will behave in the way you say - fire momentarily and then die. It's not 100% that's what's doing it, but it's possible and needs to be checked before you can go anywhere else.

Sounds to me like you need to get a diagnostic readout (VCDS) on it to see what's happening. If the immo box is cutting the engine, I think that will show up on there, but again I'm not 100% on it, as I didn't have a standard ECU setup on my Felicia for 90% of the time I owned one.

I was going to call up about a diagnostics today. I have tried to source the little white box also but cant find one anywhere. The main dealers can get but it will take 40 days apparently. Any ideas where i can get one from ?

Someone with a scrap Felicia or two - have you asked Jim (Felicia16v)? He used to have lots of bits at work.

I think you're better off spending money to get the diagnostic stuff yourself than pay someone to read codes for you - I got a bluetooth code reader for £7 and use Torque on my android phone which cost around £3.50. Works brilliantly, does real-time stuff on modern cars, but most importantly means I can read codes whenever I like without spending out on it. Standalone readers are generally crap. I've not used VCDS (which was originally VAG-COM) for years, but back in the day the old version worked fine with a cheap cable and my laptop.

Now just to be sure I've got it right, your engine starts but dies in a few seconds? If yes, and you have an immobilizer installed, it is immobilizer related.

It is bog standard wiring loom. No c locking,immobiliser airbags or anything !

Does sound like the immobiliser.

Does the car fire up, run for a second or so, and then die suddenly (i.e. it dies as if it has been turned off, not as if it's still trying to run but peters out)?

it just fires up and then dies immedietly and doesnt even give u a chance to open the throttle ! It doesnt have an immobiliser to my knowledge and i have it over a year now.

There are Felicia without immobilizer, on very cheap ones, or perhaps the last owner bypassed it.

This might help to decide whether you have it or not. Mirror image for wrong side drive.

Edited 9 April, 201313 yr by adurer

Looking at car wiring, I see 'the little white box' C10 is a condenser having a diode in parallel. It's more like a protection against dangerous EMF voltage spikes. Anyway, it's best to get the alternator out and have it checked before frying other circuits too.

Just to hang the electronics point in someplace relevant, if you've exploded C10, then either the condensor has leaked (oil-filled units only), or been subject to way too much voltage and/or current. This is further confirmed by the dried out accumulator cells.

Contacted local diagnostics shed. They said there system has just gone down. Cant do anything until next week. where do i get this bluetooth reader thing and what is the lead called for connecting the laptop for vagcom ? If i can get both it has got to be better than none. I am going to check the ig' barrel now against the diagram to check for immo'. How do i get in touch with JIM16V for the white box.?