started to fog up... We've had some pretty decent rain lately, for Melbourne... So anyway, I'm driving along, and my hand automatically hits the front demist switch... Nothing. I mean nothing. I looked down to notice the temperature wasn't even being displayed, and none of the buttons worked. "Oh no..", I thought. I thought it'd be best to diagnose it properly whenever was possible, however, as soon as I hit the clutch the the temperature faded in and the unit started working. This puzzled me to no end... When I took off, and let the clutch out, the numbers faded away as I applied more power. I moved through the gears to third and had to stop at a set of lights... Clutch goes in, I come to a stop and the climate control unit fades back into existence again. By this point I was extremely puzzled. If it helps, I was using a fair bit of power - I had the wipers on (front and back), had the headlights on, and was listening to the stereo also... My initial thoughts are to blame it on the underdrive pulley and be done with it, but I'm a little concerned. I figured that if the underdrive pulley was the culprit that everything would work BETTER as I applied more rev's, but this is not the case. On a completely different note, my power steering fluid has started leaking recently, and I haven't had the time (or car stands/ramps) to get under the car and have a proper look, but it seems to be leaking from right in the centre of the engine. I figure it must be travelling along the plastic guard and leaking out there. I plan on getting this checked out, and in the meantime have been checking and topping up the fluid every day or two. Does anyone know of any common problems with the power steering system? Cheers, Mathius :zlove:
I'd be very surprised if the pulley was responsible. There are a lot of underdrive pulleys on Zs on this forum and I've not heard that problem before. I'm no expert but acceleration and vibration, maybe a loose connection. My pod was prised off with a screwdriver by the caryard I bought it from I suspect and so one of the fittings is broken, and it does some funny things at times because it is a bit loose
This might surprise some people, but I don't think it's the UDP. My money would be on a broken or corroded engine and/or chassis earth (cable from battery -ve to engine, and body), or possibly a dodgy connector in the A/C computer, which sits next to the clutch pedal. Was anything else misbehaving? If it was only the A/C, I'd be inspecting all the connections to the A/C computer, which is a black box just the the left of the clutch pedal. If other electrical things were malfunctioning, I'd suspect an engine or chassis earth. The reason I think it might be an engine earth is that I've seen it in much less complex cars - a broken engine earth makes it very hard for the alternator to complete the electrical circuit from battery +ve, alternator, alternator ground (engine block), back to battery -ve. Without the engine earth, the current from the alternator will look for alternate paths back to the battery -ve, which include through the gearbox, tailshaft, diff, and any miscellaneous brackets and connections along the way. Pushing the clutch in partially diconnects the gearbox from the engine block in an electrical sense, which makes it even harder for the alternator to supply power to the car's electrical system. As the revs raise though, the faster spinning alternator can supply more current, and partially overcome the poor earth circuit. Good luck with finding the fault - hope this helps. :zlove:
Yeah, good point... I just thought it may have been the UD pulley as I've heard stories of it not driving the alternator as hard as it should. The other thing that puzzled me was losing power as I made more rev's, that didn't make sense to me. Also, this is the first time I've used so many electricals all at once since getting the pulley installed... ... Also, the climate control acted perfectly fine this morning... Oh well, looks like it's time to get my alternator checked out, thanks guys! :thumbsup: -- Mathius :zlove:
