Hi everyone.

 

Had my ZTT for some time now and went to start it this morning you guessed it - nothing. My other half was trying to lock and set the alarn yesterday and pressed wrong buttons on the remote so my first question is could the alarm have confused the ECU. I did hear a clicking sound coming from the ECU when I first tried to start it this morning.

 

Have just tried another battery that is fine on volts as the old one was low on volts and the indicators flashed on - I disengaged the alarm and engaged it and it seemed to work fine. Went to start it and just got a clicking sound from the engine bay (like a solenoid) tried it again and after a while didn't even get that.

 

I hope someone can help as I am supposed to see my kids tomorrow night

and I am now panicking :(

 

Regards

Andy Long

in the enfine bay at the back on the drivers side are some fuses, swap the abs and the ignition ones around and see if it then starts.

Thanks mate I will try that when I get home

 

Can you shed any light on the clicking sound from the ECU

 

Regards

Andy

Sorry

 

What if swapping the fuses over doesn't work ??

ECU's don't click. Must be something else down there.

That is what I thought but I only had a quick look in my lunch - it just sounded like a switch clicking or a kind of solenoid sound and it did keep going after I had tried to start it and had removed the key - It did stop when I turned the ignition key??

That's why I was asking about the ECU's - oh well more investigation tonight, thanks anyway

IIRC you can reset your ECU by disconecting the battery for at least 12 hours. If nothing else it should dispell the confused ECU theory. As Andy says ECU's dont click, but you dont know if it is driving something else to.

Sounds like duff batteries, try a brand new fully charged one or a jump start

Cheer Spinksy and Paul

I am not sure if the alarm is connected to something down in that area i have got some cable tracing to do tonight by the looks of it

Tried it on jump leads this morning with no joy - so my first thought was that I needed a new battery.

Have tried a battery swap and the other battery had a good charge and still seems to be something else as it is not turning over

Good luck mate. Chasing electrical problems around the engine bay is my favorite passtime :rolleyes: Just when you think youv'e got it sussed the problem moves lol.

Know what you mean

 

Still think that the alarm may have something to do with this and maybe might have shut something down so I might just disable it (if I can) see if that works and if not take the battery offline

Could be stuck starter motor solonoid, the ECU won't click as there are no relays (clicky electronic components) in it !

Starter motor had occured to me but I just thought it was a bit of a coincidence that after all the hassle that the other half had setting the alarm and now it won't start.

 

Started fine on friday no hassle

My Cortina used to do that. I always carried a hammer with me to whack the little bugga. That tought it a lesson lol. Joking aside that does sound feasable as a sticking starter or solonoid would stop it starting no matter how good the battery was.

Give the starter/solonoid a tap (with a hammer) a couple of times, not too hard, and try starting again

My Cortina used to do that. I always carried a hammer with me to whack the little bugga. That tought it a lesson lol. Joking aside that does sound feasable as a sticking starter or solonoid would stop it starting no matter how good the battery was.

 

you beat me to it !

And I bet it's not easy to get to the starter motor to whack it either - lol

 

Just seem to have coincidences running through my mind with the alarm thing

Can you find out where your alarm immobilises the car from the installer? It may well be the immobiliser not disconecting. In answer to your question the best way to hit the starter motor is from under the car. Not much help if you cant drive it onto a ramp though. Ill get me coat...........

mine did the same thing and was fixed as per earlier post by changing the ignition fuse, that had blown.

Cheers everyone for your input and suggestions and I will try them tonight - thanks again

Cheers everyone for your input and suggestions and I will try them tonight - thanks again

 

Is your Alarm a Clifford by any chance?

 

A clifford will trick the ECU and you will have to reset it by removung both battery terminals for about half an hour. This will work sometimes.

 

If it is a clifford or Avant (which is French for cliford) Save yourself a lot of heart ache and get it removed. Toads the way to go.

 

I've just had several months of not start and constant imobiliser problems with a clifford. They tend to T into the main ignition feed just by the main fuse box next to the Servo on the bulkhead.

 

If its a 7 point system you'll find they only imobilise it with three points.

 

Is your car an Auto? if so they sometimes use the relay for the ingear imobiliser. thats found in the fuse box in the footwell and they will often use the fuel pump which is found under the rear N/S wheel arch cover in the boot.

 

If it's not a clifford then I have no idea beyond what has already been said.

Any joy getting her going again ?

Morning everyone.

 

Interested in what you said Mark as the alarm is a Toad.

So anyway after taking nearly all the alarm wiring off and finding where it ended up in the passenger footwell and taking the ECU out it turns out that all the fiddling the missus had done by getting all confused trying to set an alarm seems to have just locked everything up. So basically - immobilised

Reconnected everything and connected her battery and yippee it started first time so I have charged my original battery overnight as I am still not 100% confident that this isn't on the way out as well.

 

Once again thanks very much for all your suggestions and I have to say that this website has provided a wealth of information for me which has helped a great deal.

Keep up the good work as this site is the nuts.

 

Regards

Andy