[Mk2] [Generic] bit of an odd one, probably need a specialist

[Ryan S]

ok, so not my car but my friends rev2 turbo, he says when he's driving along, sometimes the car will cough and splutter, but on top of that, his speedo cluster goes mental, speedo and rev counter both jumping around, he says the mileage start shooting up as well, this happens at completely random times, unsure if this is related, but he also has a problem where the car randomly won't start, disconnect then reconnect the battery and it starts fine, i had a similar problem on my old rev2, it turned out to be the clifford alarm, my mate also has a similar clifford alarm

anyway, if anyone has any ideas (other than take it to a sparky) let me know, cheers,

Ryan.

[synXero]

I had this happen on my old white car. I can't honestly the remember the cause of it, but it was properly strange to see the speedo shoot up to 110 when you were stationary, and made you feel a bit cheated when the odo rolled round without you doing any miles!

I think in the end it was bad grounding points?

[Ryan S]

it's something i've never heard of before man, i didn't have a single suggestion as to what it could be, my initial thought was the speedo sender unit, but when he mentioned the car bucking and misfiring i decided it wasn't that, could be bad earths as you say, i thought possibly ECU related

[killerferret666]

I'm going to say what everyone does when something like this happens and thats the earth on the inlet manifold.

This earth is the earth for the engine loom and from building the kitcar it is where the ECU earths as well. I didn't have a clean connection on this and was getting a low injector duty because of it as well.

Just take it off, clean the two pieces of metal and reconnect, no harm in doing it and an easy job.

[Ryan S]

any pics of it mate?? or is it obvious?? it's not a problem i've ever heard of before did you have the same symptoms??

[markstevieandmads]

I'dsay dodgy earth too.
I had it on my old tubby and found there was a break in one of the battery leads. Cut and remade the connection and didn'thave a problem after.

[Ryan S]

cheers folks, i'll tell him to have a look, so, battery terminal, and the earth on the inlet manifold.

[markstevieandmads]

You couldn't see the break as it was under the insulation but when i slightly bent it I could hear the "cracking" of the broken bits.
i cut it back and remade it and put a decent battery clamp on it .

[Ryan S]

You couldn't see the break as it was under the insulation but when i slightly bent it I could hear the "cracking" of the broken bits.
i cut it back and remade it and put a decent battery clamp on it .

cheers man, i'll get him to have a look

[synXero]

That's a point, I replaced the negative clamp on the lead on my battery and it fixed it I think. I guess that's worth a go, the new clamp costs about a quid.

[Ryan S]

cheers folks, i've let him know what to do