Bad Earth

Modifications to any other vehicles or things which can benefit any of the other vehicles owners.
Post Reply
Lorry
High Range 4WD
High Range 4WD
Posts: 64
Joined: Tue Jun 23, 2015 10:06 am
Town: durban
Vehicle: D4D hilux DC $X$
Real Name: Lorenzo

Bad Earth

Post by Lorry »

Hi.
I would like to share an incident that happened to me last week.
I was at the gas station filling up and when it came to start my vehicle, turned the key and the dashboard lights went dead. Tried again and the starter solenoid clicked and then nothing. Thought my 6 year old battery had finally taken the high road. I have duel battery system fitted so I linked the two batteries the starter tried to turn and the lights went dead again, then the battery indicator on the monitor started to do some funky things and then itself stopped registered the main battery.
I lifted the bonnet only to find that the 80 amp fuse feeding the duel battery had blown. Length of cable load on the cable fuse blew. So I removed the spare battery from the back only to realise that the battery terminals are different, point to remember when buying a second battery. Lesson learnt. Cut a long story short and not having a volt meter, turned out once I managed to jump start "Push start" the Hilux I drove to my mech and with his volt meter we checked the charge from the alt, checked the battery under load and it was 100%, when we checked the volts from the battery to the end of the small earth strap going to the main fuse box it only registered 5 volts. We moved the earth strap and the volts back to normal. Replaced the Earth strap and everything is 100% again.
User avatar
CasKru
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 23956
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2007 11:52 am
Town: Benoni
Vehicle: '94 Hilux Raider 2.4i (22RE) DC 4x4
Real Name: Cassie
Club VHF Licence: B15
Location: Rynfield

Re: Bad Earth

Post by CasKru »

Thank you for the heads-up.

Something I've learnt when it comes to the electrical side when working on cars... always first check the earthing
To God be the glory
User avatar
ChrisF
Top Web Wheeler
Top Web Wheeler
Posts: 8188
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 2:56 pm
Town: inniedorp
Vehicle: Toy
Real Name: Chris

Re: Bad Earth

Post by ChrisF »

Thanks Lorenzo.

YES, the earth wire have caused many a car owner lots of grieve !!!!!!!!!!!!


PS - you CAN buy screw on terminals for your deep cycle battery, thus it looks and works exactly like your normal battery, and is interchangable when needed .... (not that this will help for a bad earth)
User avatar
pietpetoors
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 10649
Joined: Thu May 17, 2007 9:12 pm
Town: Langebaan
Vehicle: 2.7 Hilux 4x4 DC
Real Name: Pieter
Club VHF Licence: X27
Contact:

Re: Bad Earth

Post by pietpetoors »

Thanx Lorenzo. will remember that one. :thumbup:
Only Dead Fish Go With The Flow!
Image
1999 Hilux 2.7i 4x4 Raider DC with 3.4 Prado V6. Rear diff-lock, Bull Bar and rock sliders, 31" Cooper ST Maxx, Snorkel, Alu-Canopy, VHF Motorolla radio, West Coast Rust, Mikem Suspension, Ball Joint Spacers in front and Mikem extended shackles at the rear, 25watt LED Spots
Post Reply

Return to “General Mods”