Driving home from work yesterday I had to go round three roundabouts after driving on the motorway. At the first .. no problem. At the second .. as I pulled away there was a complete loss of power for a fraction of a second but basically the bus bump started and so I carried on. At the third as the revs dropped the bus stopped dead. Dashboard dead . Turned on the hazards but nothing happened. Went round the back and opened up the engine hatch. Wiggled the battery earth clamp which was fairly tight ... but I could move it. Hazards came on so I went back to the front and started up. Only two white vans worked out what was going on and got round me. Got home and tightened up the clamp. Drove it 150 miles today no trouble.
Next time you do a run have a feel of the terminal post, it may feel slighly warm, a sure sign of slight resistance between the post and clamp. If the post has a hard black surface give it a scrape as the lead has got an oxidized coating built up.
Same happened to me this summer. I switched off for a minute then nothing. My fault as I don't tighten the earth clamp I just ram it on the terminal.
Good point. I will take a look. The other thing I noticed driving in the dark a few times over the last few days was the alternator light was flickering dimly probably as the connection was getting worse.
The terminal was not too black but the inside of the clamp was pretty black. Nice and clean now and the alternator light is a lot dimmer at night.
Been to the loose terminal place , in france last year , had to get a jump start from a girl on the site who insisted that the engine was at the front
