Just had this issue coming into work today - might be related to the recent very wet weather we've had down south?

 

As I was driving along on a smooth road the dash just shut down... all clocks went dead and dash lights off for about 2-3 seconds. The radio was still working and the car ran fine... the dash re-booted itself and all was Ok for the last 10 minutes of the drive in but the trip and clock had re-set themselves to 000. I am a little confused as to what it could be?

 

Wondering if it's a water ingress issue as the centre jointing piece on the plastic scuttle under the windscreen has a small rip in it, could this be letting water into something vital?

 

As an aside I have had a dead rear drivers window motor for the last month or so, I have replaced the whole lifter mechanism and motor with a good second hand one due to the usual snapped plastic issue, but the motor only worked for a couple of minutes and then died in the up position. Since that happened the central locking doesn't work right (the rear o/s door doesn't lock obviously) with randomly not locking of the doors so I have to lock/unlock 2-3 times to get all 3 remaining doors and the boot to lock.

 

Also since replacing the mechanism the auto-down on the front windows has packed up as well as the control to the rear (working) window from the driver's console, and the N/S front passenger only goes down in "stutters" from the drivers door switch console, but work smoothly from the passenger switch...

 

Any ideas or pointers? I HATE car electrics...

 

Car is a 54 plate Mk1 Octy VRs BTW... No mods apart from a new radio.

I originally thought to myself 'it's probably the main multiplug in the back of the clocks...'

 

But then when I read the rest....

 

Sounds like it might be an issue with one of the wiring loom's main multiplugs maybe, seeing as you have so many problems all at once.

 

The ECU and main multiplug is under the scuttle panel you describe, so this is possibly the first port of call.

 

Then it's a (horrible) case of checking out all the other loom connections, starting at the battery and the power distribution block on top of it and going back.

 

 

I'm pretty good at and happy with most car-related electrics, but even I know when it's time to call in an expert. BAsically if I can't trace a fault within an hour or two, I find that getting a decent auto electrician pays dividends - these guys usually find the most remote faults within an hour or so - and usually only charge maybe 25 quid an hour. Money well spent.

 

Hope you find the soluton whatever it is - let us all know on here how you get on, yeah?