350 Electrical Help please

[phinnies1]

Hi guys

I have had a 2003 Z since May of last year. Soon after buying the car I noticed that when cold you would get the occasional flicker of the rev counter needle, either up or down, it would not affect the cars performance or rev the engine, just localised to the needle.

More recently the problem has increased and the needle does a little dance up and down. As well as this I get other small issues, the ABS and STALL lights have flickered, the full beam light has popped on and off briefly (only a couple of times) it is an Auto and the reverse caution sound has randomly started beeping and I am sure yesterday the horn sounded.

These are all for a very short time, just flickers and only happens in the first few miles of driving before the car has warmed up.

All of the above I can handle although annoying but twice now the car has displayed another fault which I can only describe as the clutch jumping out. The car has become stuck in first and the clutch does not engage when I brake to a halt (hence the car stalls). Turning off the engine and re-starting has imediately cured this fault on both occasions so again it leads me to believe its electrical related (probably ECU?)

 

Firstly has anybody experienced similar and secondly can anybody recommend a good electrics workshop to take the car to? I am based in the West country (Yeovil) and have one nearby who are TVE (Chard) who are good but they are generic fault finders and really dont know anything about this car. I am happy to travel further afield if there is somebody more atuned to the Z electrics?

[Andy]

First thing I would do is get a multimeter on the battery and alternator. If it is only happening before the car warms up, it may be struggling for power until the alternator starts charging the battery a bit. Also check the contact points on the battery to make sure they are tight and also check the earths, battery, alternator and iirc gearbox. It's a good place to start if you have or can borrow a meter as it won't cost you anything

[phinnies1]

First thing I would do is get a multimeter on the battery and alternator. If it is only happening before the car warms up, it may be struggling for power until the alternator starts charging the battery a bit. Also check the contact points on the battery to make sure they are tight and also check the earths, battery, alternator and iirc gearbox. It's a good place to start if you have or can borrow a meter as it won't cost you anything

 

Thanks for the thoughts Andy, I personally changed the battery about a month ago so there is a brand new one on there so should not be that, I think this is more electrics related.

[Lincolnbaggie]

First thing I would do is get a multimeter on the battery and alternator. If it is only happening before the car warms up, it may be struggling for power until the alternator starts charging the battery a bit. Also check the contact points on the battery to make sure they are tight and also check the earths, battery, alternator and iirc gearbox. It's a good place to start if you have or can borrow a meter as it won't cost you anything

 

Thanks for the thoughts Andy, I personally changed the battery about a month ago so there is a brand new one on there so should not be that, I think this is more electrics related.

 

Changing the battery wouldn't improve a bad earth elsewhere on the system though; always start with the easy things and make sure all connections are good and clean.

[Tractor]

Yeh i agree, you need to first check you dont have a bad/loose earth connection as that can cause all sorts of gremlins.