Thread: Hidden wiring nightmares in recent purchase.

This is NOT P38 specific but..,

On RRC and D1 there is a controller under the passenger seat. Over time the solder breaks down and faults start to happen.

You put a window down but it won’t go back up again - it’s the circuit board not the window switch.

When it happened in my RRC - I said to people “don’t use the windows!”

Perhaps your previous owner had a similar issue? It’s not working - so just disable it...

Just a thought.

the 2nd and third pic clearly is a bypass for a fried pcb lane. This should not be I guess but is also nothing to really worry about. The bypass is safe when done well. The real question is, how did it get fried?

I think the same goes for the F44 to open relay socket connection. The fuse boxes on these vehicles will start to fall apart due to heat and pcb traces start burning away, connectors start failing etc. To power the EAS they picked up the +12v from the relay socket which is unused and fed it into the fuse holder. The picture shows an in-line fuse in the cable to make sure that it is "safe".

So, not much to worry about other than perhaps the fact that your P38 fuse box is on it's way out. They are fixable but replacing is I guess a better idea.

Cheers,

-P

Well that takes a lot of stress off my rather rushed purchase. Now just to figure out why the battery keeps going flat overnight.

flat overnight? that's a lot of power Most P38's come with a 100ah battery standard and if it's drained you must have used quite a bit of it. On the other hand, wet lead acid batteries can't handle being drained so it might be busted already.

try and measure the current that goes through when the car is sitting. Just unplug one of the battery terminals and insert and amp meter. Most cheap multimeters go up to 10A and that should be more than enough. The trick is: disconnect battery. Have one lead of the meter connected to the cable, leave the other one close by. Touch the battery terminal with the cable you disconnected. Keep it pressed against the terminal and then hold the other probe of the amp meter against the terminal. Finally move the cable away from the terminal. This way power spikes that occur when connecting a battery won't fry your fuse or meter, but you can still measure what goes through once that is done.

Also, give the battery a proper charge with a multi stage charger if you have the chance. Jumping a battery and just driving a bit won't charge the battery at all so that can account for the flat battery the next morning.

Cheers,
-P

Yeah the battery is far from a 100 amp hour its 660cca car battery. The car is parked on a angled driveway and the sunroof was unplugged when I got it. I plugged the sunroof back in, so I am not sure if that's part of it. But I dont think the battery is long for this world. But thanks for the hints i will check the current draw and see what's going on.

Apart from checking the battery condition, make sure the car is going to 'sleep'.
The red indicator light on the gear selector panel should dim right down when locked & left alone for around a minute. It's easier to see this when dark outside.
Sleep mode means that all the ECUs have shut down & aren't expecting any activity soon. Once the car is unlocked again, the wake up procedure starts. If it doesn't dim down, something is wrong.
One problem is the receiver for the key remote. If it detects any wayward signals while in sleep mode, it will start waking up the car ready for action. If this happens frequently enough, it will eventually drain the battery. TV remotes, garage door remotes, shop scanners and even automatic sliding door sensors are amongst the many things that can trigger this.

Sounds vaguely familiar....

Maybe it was something like that behind the FREE P38 in Perth WA some years ago. - Spottted it parked / dumped on a local Freeway with a note on the dash carrying a phone number and something along the lines of 'Free to a good home - ANY home !' Suggests the owner was fed up with constant breakdowns, and the price turned out to be genuine...
I was at that time, still infatuated with The Lady Sarah - so no room at my cottage...
.
Occasionally wonder if said 'lemon' was finally turned into an apple or orange.

Or dumped with a note on the dash.