Hello,

Had a crank no start. Bosch starter motor reconditioned fitted. Car starts each and every time for a month since fitting.

Wife noticed radio (Kenwood aftermarket) loses power on cranking and resets or stays shut down. Radio fitted 1 year ago and only shut down when battery was knackered. Turning off fan, lights had no effect. Radio loses power when starting every time, warm or cold engine.

Looks like a voltage drop. Dash lights unaffected. I already cleaned all earth points in engine bay. I checked the negative battery cable to suspension turret earth. Put extra cable on it in case breakage (jump lead). Radio still loses power momentarily forcing reset. Presets not lost.

Battery is healthy and reading over 12.6v

AI Google says to fit a capacitor plus loom behind radio to drop the voltage drop. Anything else I can do? The battery is bigger than needed. 540Cca and it got at least 100 cca so I'm thinking is there a weak ground.

Radio needs ignition on to power up - switched live. Could red and yellow wires be wrong way around, but then radio would be on all time = flat battery on constant live.

Also seen a little brown wire slightly frayed on neg battery terminal. It is used for control systems on car and provides clean voltage unlike earth points. Could that be to blame?

Any ideas appreciated.

Check the battery voltage while engine is being cranked - likely that voltage is dropping too low during engine crank.

From memory the yellow wire I think is permanent live and red is from ignition. The yellow wire is there to keep settings etc. It may be that the Kenwood is more susceptible to voltage drop. Check that the yellow wire is getting 12v with ignition off.

Alasdair

Radio wires - yes I checked with multimeter at time.

AI says the aftermarket are susceptible to voltage drop and under 10.5v they shut down.

Suggested I buy add on that has loom and small capacitor to take up the drop in voltage on cranking.

Car wouldn't start now - the spade connector in starter motor had popped out. Any suggestions on holding it in? I crimped spade connector for tighter fit but it was already as tight as it would go. The aftermarket starter motor might have had some wear on its male spade end. I used duct tape but it came unstuck. Soldering a bit extreme and hard to get to.

Don't think this is related to radio though. Thanks

Ps found this for starter motor relay wire.

1K0973751 1 Pin Prewired Starter Connector for VW AUDI Seat.

Currently there is just a female spade connector. Will this part fit? Methinks not....

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by bmbmdmb

Check the spade connection sizes. It could be that the starter has a slightly smaller spade than one than the spade connector. There normally 4.8mm or 6.3mm

Alasdair

Meant to add check the main feed from battery to starter is tight. If its slightly loose it may explain V drop. You could also check voltage accross battery when cranking to see how far it drops.

Alasdair

I'll check battery voltage drop across battery. Earth to starter is tight and I cleaned contact. I had a wiggle of cable when fitting starter motor and no sign of breakage and what I could see of cable was uncorroded.

AI says 6.3mm spade which from memory fits what I saw. The spade is loose in direction it pushes on/off, not sideways if that is how spade sizes change (on width)?

The tightness of the fit wasn't great before on old starter. I'd spotted looseness some years ago and I'd put duct tape holding cable in place, just in case.

Assuming the wire connector is female, the best idea would be to replace the connector - being careful not to shorten the wire too much if slack to loom is limited.

The wire is an extension of about 10cm to give some slack for engine movement probably fitted due to problems earlier on with it coming lose when ASZ engine made. This is BLT.

When the car returns home do I measure width of spade or it's length?

Ta

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by bmbmdmb

Width of spade. Its normally 6.3mm. It could be that it has become slightly too wide so by crimping the rolled sections wont make it hold very well. Either replace it or try and squeeze the rolled sections together slightly to reduce overall width Check the earth on the radio as well. If replacing make sure you use one suitable for the thickness of wire. From memory blue is 1.5-2.5mm and yellow is 3-6mm. Thats the cross sectional area of wire.

Alasdair

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Alasdair1

Crank voltage across terminals dropped to 10.30V , that's in the 10 to 10.5V range that AI said aftermarket radios shut down.

Earth connector - had a look diagonally across engine bay. Only thing I can think of is there is a circular washer that is crumpled / rippled. Might have put it on wrong way place reducing contact area? Other earth points don't have this.

Order as follows nut - washer - starter earth cable contact - earth point.

Maybe washer goes between last 2?

I could add another earth cable between starter and earth point?

Starter live wire spade - the starter has a smaller spade. Oddly

I'd suggest having the battery properly tested first.