good news bad news -

turns out the fault with the car electrical system is down to the main ignition cables being glued onto the ignition barrel and not attached using the connector block. Bl00dy 'ell. Someone in the past has either broken or actually cut the connector off and then to fix the fault glued the ignition wires back onto the bottom of the barrel lock. I still have yet to think of a reason why this would be done let alone a good one to justify it.

Have ordered a 2nd hand loom for fitting on Monday coming but if the barrel lock is damaged on the connector end then I'm looking at getting a new barrel lock for the ignition. The problem with that is a new key as Toyota will not supply a lock cut for the existing key. So if the barrel lock needs changing then I have to consider the option of changing all the locks in order to keep to only having one key.

Oddly enough this does not fill me with happiness and no amount of Cadbury's is going to change it. Becks maybe but not mere chocolate

radio out of the car -

still same fault happening though with a slight difference. This time I had hit a fair sized bump on the m74 and the pas light blinked then the power started to disappear and the rev counter / speedo droppped to zero. Still at this point no warning lights.

Fcuk it I thought - dipped the clutch turned the ignition off turned it back on and all the warning lights came on cranked the engine and popped it back into gear.

This is beginning to seriously pi$$ me off

groan -

the car stopping electrical fault is still alive and distinctly unhealthy. Car cut out again on way home from work. Loads of crackling type noise from the radio area, turned the radio off and the noise was still there dashboard lights all a flashing then the whole lot died.

Quick crawl onto the hard shoulder of the M8 and restart the car which it does no problem of course. I've had a look round in the gap and can't see the problem and it definitely sounds like its coming from under the radio area or it could be the radio itself.

Anyhow I'm taking the radio / cd player out and seeing if the problem returns. Process of elimination begins once more. Groan

so that's what is behind the dash board then -

indeed I have taken apart the dash board, well centre consule anyway and the tray under the steering column in an effort to find the source of that crackling noise that causes compete power failure. I found a couple of things that gave me pointers to the source of the problem

• a couple of connector blocks that had some strands of copper reaching out


• all the radio cables and boost gauge cables were getting crushed behind the centre consule


• a couple of other wires that lead to nowhere

So I taped up the connector blocks removed any pointless wires and tidied the wiring so nothing was getting crushed. Have been for a few drives and no problems noted.

Will keep my fingers crossed that the problem is sorted

oh dear engine cutting electrical fault --

yeah the car has developed an annoying and potentially dangerous fault.

Driving along at like 50mph on the motorway - honest - and the rev counter and speedo starting dropping to zero and then climbing back to normal and then dancing between the two points.

The car looses power at this point too and starts slowing down and not responding to throttle inputs

a strange crackling like noise from where the radio sits - turned the radio off and could hear it quite clear

the engine is still running at this point - I know cause I turned the started motor on and it screamed as it hit the still turning startor teeth (oops)

then the warning lights come on and the engine is stopped

Oddly enough I turned the ignition off and recranked the engine and it fired up so I carried on.

very strange and has now done this on the last three journeys but only two have actually dropped the ignition completely. Think I'll check the connections behind the radio for loose ones