Hi there,

I have had a wierd thing happen to the ghia this morning.
The first thing that I notice is that the car was harder to start than normal. This did not suprise me, as the car only moves a couple of times a week.
I drove to the shops and back home, without any incident, until I got to my driveway.
My H/U cut out (as if it had lost power, not being switched off). I appeared to have everything else. I then put the car in the garage and switched it off. I could hear the aerial motor whirring. It would go for 2 seconds in one direction, stop for a second, turn in the opposite direction for another 2 second, stop for another second, and then repeat the cycle.The mast for the aerial has been broken since before I had the car, so I do not know what way it is going. The BEM is clicking at the same time that the aerial is doing this - so I know that the aerial is doing this because the BEM is making it.
I went to start the car again, to borrow a spare BEM - as I have heard of them stuffing up, and thought that this would be the solution.
I could not start the car. I had no interior lights, no cluster lights, no interior lights, tail lights etc. I have parkers but no headlights.
I borrowed a car to obtain a BEM. The only one I can get on short notice is a blue (mid series) one. I thought that although I may lose a couple of things, but I should still have a car that runs.
I unplugged the battery (so that I can charge it off the car). While it was off the car, I swapped the BEM over. When I re-connected everything and went to flick the ignition to reds, I still had no reds, and no other accessories.
When the ignition is set to off, The aerial does the same whirring as with my original BEM, but I also noticed that when the aerial has the one second pause, my interior lights flick on for that second. It will do it whether a door is open or not. I put my BEM back in (as I did not notice it with my BEM in the car) and it does the same thing.

It sounds like a short, but I cannot see anything. Would there be anything else that could cause this? I am not too sure where to start looking.

I have not made any changes to the wiring in this car since before christmas, and the only things I changed then are the Airbag and clock spring. I have unplugged EVERYTHING electrical that has been modified - which is only the stereo, airbag/clock spring and the sunroof. The car is still doing it.
I am all out of ideas! What should I do?

Any Advice would be appreciated
Cheers
Chris

Have you tried the battery from your other car ???

Yeah, I figured out that one 10 mins after I posted I had to go rescue an EB that went into a flooded causeway

Well, I didn't try the battery swap, but the car started and everything was fine when I used my battery charger to start my car.

Getting a multimeter to confirm my fears tomorrow. Might be time to upgrade to the Optima (or the new car )

sorry to hijack this thread, but my car has been having similar problems, but only the wipers and sound system won't work.. Starts first time every time, and it's only driven once a week

Same issue, the battery?

Check the voltage using a multimeter. If your battery and alternator are fine, you shoul have 12v when the car is off (with no accessories draining the battery), and when the car is running, you should have between 13.2v and 14.4v.

My issue was that the battery dropped a few cells. Everything started cutting out because of the load that my stereo system puts on the alternator. The moment that I switched off the car, everything died and would not come back to life, as the battery was not holding charge. I bought a new battery, and all seems fine.