Well on Saturday i met the new owner Conrad and his wife when they dropped off the car at the workshop.
He is new to MR2s, but is on the ball with all things mechanical and electrical.
He lives in the North Sea, well on the Shetland Islands,
(same difference
), so is leaving the car with me and collecting it next time he is on the mainland.
So this morning i decided to get stuck in.
I decided to forget all tests done remotely, and to start afresh with the car in front of me and my own diagnostic tools.
To eliminate the engine loom, i made Karl a test loom back in November.
This was simply a 3 pin alternator plug, with the three wires extended by 6 feet, each one labled and terminated in a ring terminal.
The idea being it could be plugged in to the alternator, and connected to the fuse box, thus eliminating the engine loom.
So first test was to confirm the current drain
- confirmed at 450mA.
Alternator unplugged, and test loom plugged in and connected
- current drain 30mA.
Fault found in 12 minutes.
In a nutshell, Toyota's wiring colours are different to Lexus, and whilst soldering the Lexus plug onto the 3S loom, i mistakenly connected the IGN and ALT SENC wires the wrong way round.
So wires corrected, and no more current drain.
I can't suggest why Karl got a different result when he used my test loom, but ulimately that doesn't matter, fault fixed.
Needless to say, Spring has come early to Conrad in the North Sea.
