Everything Dead

110 200tdi - Got halfway home and now I have a massive problem!
Lost all power on the M61, lights, engine the lot. Rolled into the hard shoulder. During this there was a bit of fizzing a bit of smoke. I can swear the electric fizzing was coming from behind of the Speedo part of the dash.
Anyway, just got home on a flatbed, where to start...internal likes that are wired directly into battery and hazzards and alarm still working. Nothing else, not even hazzard dash lights.

Skolmate said:

Got halfway home and now I have a massive problem!
Lost all power on the M61, lights, engine the lot. Rolled into the hard shoulder. During this there was a bit of fizzing a bit of smoke. I can swear the electric fizzing was coming from behind of the Speedo part of the dash.
Anyway, just got home on a flatbed, where to start...internal likes that are wired directly into battery and hazzards and alarm still working. Nothing else, not even hazzard dash lights.

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I would start pulling fuses to see if any have blown. If you find one/some it might indicate the circuit with a problem.

Fuse under the bonnet?

Take the dash apart enough so tou can see all the wiring, check the back of the key and the plug, concentrate your time on any electrical bodges that have been made

Al2O3 said:

I would start pulling fuses to see if any have blown. If you find one/some it might indicate the circuit with a problem.

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The wiper fuse had blown and I replaced enroute about 30mins before the incident.

mojo247 said:

Fuse under the bonnet?

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Which fuse would kill everything?

Skolmate said:

Which fuse would kill everything?

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The blue 60amp one I think

OP has edited the post to say 200tdi.
No engine fuses on them.

Grem said:

Take the dash apart enough so tou can see all the wiring, check the back of the key and the plug, concentrate your time on any electrical bodges that have been made

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+1.^^^^^

Look for the thick brown wire(s) coming from the back of the alternator to the loom. If you have a meter/test lamp you can check for voltage at the plug just inside the engine bay. I'd bet they have chafed against the bulkhead where they go into the dash.

Check the earth straps too. There is (mine is older but yours should be the same) one that comes out of the battery box under the passenger seat and goes straight onto the chassis. That caused me a lot of headaches with slow turning over and then a dead 110, as well as the unneeded hassle of changing the ignition switch when the old one was fine. There will also be other straps going from the chassis to the gearbox/engine. Worth a look?

Have your battery earth free and ready to pull off quick while you are looking around.Battery voltage check to see if it has drained.

Before your wiper fuse went, did you have a problem with the wipers not parking correctly
The wiper motor park has an ignition controlled unswitched live connected to it, sometimes the contact inside the parking switch box can break off and short out.

Okay I had this - where the main loom passes trough the bulkhead and the plugs into the engine loom it had rubbed through and shorted - I cut out the damaged section and resoldered in a new piece of loom and a plug and it sorted it out.

Photos are in my ‘build’ thread near the end

Here is the relevant post, click the small green arrow in the quote and it will take you to the thread so you can see what I did.

Worth looking at this area, also worth looking at the starter motor wires and the igntion switch

Check all your wiring from your fuse box tomand behind the dash

flat said:

Repaired my main engine loom - it had rubbed through, quick crimp fix got me back on the road but needed a permanent (less fire inducing) repair.

Soldered in a new plug, each cable covered with adhesive shrink, then the lot covered in large adhesive shrink and loom tape.

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JimS said:

Before your wiper fuse went, did you have a problem with the wipers not parking correctly
The wiper motor park has an ignition controlled unswitched live connected to it, sometimes the contact inside the parking switch box can break off and short out.

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Nothing out of the ordinary. Only thing I noticed was a squeek every time they wiped. This was on the way to destination and it was on the return where it blew as was trying to use washer without any luck.so wipers were really slow on dry glass then blew the fuse.

flat said:

Here is the relevant post, click the small green arrow in the quote and it will take you to the thread so you can see what I did.

Worth looking at this area, also worth looking at the starter motor wires and the igntion switch

Check all your wiring from your fuse box tomand behind the dash

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This looks very likely. Will check it out and report back.

Do you have a multimeter?

nobber said:

Do you have a multimeter?

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Yes mate

Time to visually inspect and electrically check some wires then fella, this might help but a wiring diagram would be much better, should be one on tinternet for your vehicle, you will defo need a diagram, just go methodically , you know whats broke, you just need to find out where.

http://www.expeditionlandrover.info/Lucaswirecode.htm

Edit, always a good idea to extend the meters wires when checking for continuity , especially when a wire starts in the dash and ends in the engine bay.