My exciting time... Stupid VN.

[VNCalais98K]

Well... Isnt holden ownership just grand...

If anyone has read my other threads, you will know that my car just attracts faults.

The temp sensor is officially stuffed.. wether or not this is why the thermo doesnt switch on is yet to be discovered, but the guage has started sitting on dead cold for most of my drives now, which i know is impossible, only raising to 1/4 occasionally.

Anyway...
Leave my fiance's place last night, realise I have no headlights...
It ends up being a sticky relay, so giving it a hit worked a treat.
In the process of checking the fuses, I realised that fuse 8 - i think is A/C and rear demister, has actually melted to the fuse panel.
I pulled it out with pliers this morning, but I wonder what makes a fuse do that - I thought the whole point was that they blow and prevent this sort of thing... It was a standard 25amp fuse too, nothing too big or small.

Anyway, last on the list was that when i finally got home like 2 hours after leaving on a 20 min drive i turned the alarm on and it started going off...
I made sure all the doors were shut, and checked the alarm wiring, readjusted the shock sensor, blah blah blah and it kept going off...
Thinking that my neighbours would kill me, and facing the prospect of leaving the car unlocked all night, i then realised that the interior light was switched on...
Turned that off, closed up and never heard a blip since..


Anyway... long story short... I hate my car right now, but I also love it so much!

[peter65]

ahhh ya gotta love cars....

re the temp: check the thermostat - my VP had one that was stuck open and it ran cold all the time.... and while u ra at it backflush (2 or 3 times before you refill with new coolat) the radiator and change the coolant... supposed to do it every 2 years anyway.

re the fuse. the cause here was probabaly a corroded or loose connection between the fuse and the holder.... the resistance of the connection plus the high current drawn = heat which melted the thing.

cheers. pete

[evil_monkey]

dam dude talk about bad luck all the fun in owning a car though my stato broke down 2 days after i bought it, my dad was taking it to the dpi to hand in / pay for my vehicle licence transfer, the coil cracked had to get it tilt trayed was off the road for a week, new bloody car and i couldent even drive it !!

[VNCalais98K]

Yeah... the thermostat is only 3 months old, so im thinking its ok.
I got it replaced along with the inlet manifold.

But i should have gotten the temp sensor done too because i hear its a prick of a place to get to.

[pow3rslave]

before you go nuts getting at the temp sensor, give this a go.

my temp gauge didn't used to come on, but would sometimes like if i went over a bump and it jarred it.

Solution to Sticky fuel/temp guages

you can prolly test by just bashing it on the temp gauge side before you pull the thing out, but it's not that hard anyway.

[VNCalais98K]

Oh, I almost forgot.

As I was wildly flailing my arms about inside the car in desperation, I knocked the wiper switch, which promptly flew across the car and landed in the passenger footwell.
I was disappointed that i didnt score the 3 pointer and land it in the map pocket, but happy that it was only the glue join that had broken and the switch was in A1 condition. A bit of glue and all set again!