3.2 Mondial complete system shut-down....why?

I had a most bizarre, and potentially disastrous, system shut-down on my recently 're-freshed' 3.2 Mondial Cab last night and wonder if any F-chat members could shed some light.

Basically, ten metres from home after a good 300km trip, the entire system shut down. Just like that. Lights off, engine off, everything just shut down and it coasted to a halt. While it was slowing down I tried to 'jump-start' it in a lower gear and dropping the clutch, but to no use - this car was dead to the world.

Not even the hazard warning lights worked. Nothing - no radio, no lights, certainly no engine.

The actual 'switching off' moment happened just as I flicked the column stalk to operate the main beam - this would appear to have done something to cause the shut-down.

I checked under the bonnet and found two things in the dark. Firstly, the battery inspection cover had moved from its proper place and was lying in front of the spare wheel. Had it touched or dislodged something whilst moving out of place?

Secondly, a small earth wire (black) was loose, just behind the r/h pop-up headlamp motor. There is a spade connection on the side of this motor which is bare (ie without anything connecting to it) and there is also a small brass connector protruding out of the backside of the motor, again with nothing connecting to it. Where does the earth wire go?

Above all, though, what on earth could ever cause a car to simply shut down like this? The consequences of it hapenning on a main road don't bear thinking about.

Any comments much appreciated.

 

Many thanks to Adnaan, HTHs and DC for your replies and advice.

Here's an interesting coda to that story - though I'm not sure it's fixed yet...

Later in the evening, I went out to the car, opened the bonnet and put the battery cover back where it should be. In doing so, I must have touched something because the power came back on again. Lights, radio...everything.

So, I start her up, fires first time no problem, and I test most of the major elec stuff, like elec windows, radio, antenna - all works fine. Then, I put the lights on, hit the main beam again and .... BLACKOUT. Everything just shuts down as before - no engine, no lights, nothing.

So, mmmm, I think. I go under the drivers seat to get at the manual bonnet opening again, have a look around the battey area, have a jiggle around, turn the battery disconnect switch on and off again, move the battery inspection cover and on comes the power again.

This time I just run it for a while and don't try the main beam switch.

Next day, I cover up the exposed headlamp earth wire with some tape, put the headlamp inspection cover back in place firmly and secure with more tape, tighten all the earthing bolts around the battery disconnect switch - and it starts and runs fine. I go out for a short drive in the evening and this time the main beam works fine - no shut down or anything.

It would appear to be working normally, but my concern is this - if you don't know exactly what caused a problem, then you don't know if you've fixed it. Jiggling stuff around, even though I do it with great technical precision, isn't the most permanent solution...

I would agree with DC and HTHs/308GTS that it's unlikely to be the alternator given the above (though thanks to Adnaan for the story - as well as charging your batteries before going there, I might also add not to take a vinyl roof car through the monkey's area at Woburn).

So, I will keep checking. I've got a multi-function voltmeter thingy, so here's my chance to find a use for my O level in physics (failed).

Any further suggestions would be most welcome. Thanks.

 

Well, I think I fixed it. So far it's worked, so here's what I did...

First, I cleaned all the ground connections at the battery, particularly the negative terminal to chassis ground strap - the connection at the chassis was a bit mucky, so I cleaned it up and filed down the connector to get bright shiny metal. And so on with all the other connections at the battery.

Then I removed the battery disconnect switch, checked that worked OK (it did) and cleaned up the connections again before re-fitting.

That was the battery side done.

Then, I checked the fuse box connections. True to form, here was the gremlin. On the 3.2 Mondial, there is a plastic block connector at the far side of the fuse board (heading towards the centre of the car) where the various wires and feeds go into the box. As I disconnected the connector from the fuse board, I saw a burned-looking area where the brown and black striped feed-wire enters. When I went to investigate and pulled very lightly on the wires, both came away in my hand, leaving the spade connector still in the plastic block.

Looking a bit more closely, it's a bit of a design failure. Two wires have to go into this small little metal connector and I guess the poor connection (the fact that they had worked themselves loose) was the reason for the signs of over-heating signs on the plastic connector shroud and, ultimately, the reason for my shut-down problem.

When I checked this on the archives, it seems that Russ Turner had the same problem on this 3.2 Mondial - see his post of 16th April 2003, under the thread titled '3.2 Mondial electrical issue'. He even posts a photo of the plastic connector, with some major burning in the same spot.

So, this is perhaps something all 3.2 Mondial owners should check as the connection is clearly a poor design and is probably prone to failure.

I fixed it with a new spade connector (I bodged two together, but it works very well) and it's been fine since.

Hope this helps, and many thanks to those who provided their suggestions when I first posted this problem.