S210 - no indicators - wipers etc

[Liam210]

Hi all, I have a 2002 S210 320cdi - If I turn my headlights on, my wipers, indicators, electric seats, electric windows, rear heated screen, central locking stops working - there may be other things I haven't checked.

If I remove the battery and reconnect, it's all fine, until the lights are put back on, I drove 30+ miles this morning, without the lights on and everything was fine.

Last night I changed the SAM under the bonnet for a good second hand unit, no change, so I fitted my original unit back in.

Thank you for any help.

 

[ALFAitalia]

Bad, corroded or broken grounding point would be my first point of call. Any fault codes?

 

[Liam210]

Bad, corroded or broken grounding point would be my first point of call. Any fault codes?

I don’t have access to a decent diagnostics until the weekend.

I have the bulb out warning on the dash, even though they all work, but that’s been like that since I’ve had the car.

 

[ALFAitalia]

Another possible clue that its a bad ground........

 

[Liam210]

Another possible clue that its a bad ground........

Thanks buddy, is there’s a specific area to look, or is it a needle in a haystack kind of search?

 

[Ted]

Bunch of brown wires bolted to the inner wing

 

[Liam210]

Bunch of brown wires bolted to the inner wing

They’re all fine.

 

[ALFAitalia]

What about where they bolt to the metal?....on my ALFA they looked OK....but when I unbolted it there was a layer of corrosion that has formed between the inner wing and the the terminal.....sanded, cleaned and polished that and refitted and the problems went away.....started to spin over noticeably faster on the starter too. Its such a common issue that owners often fit and extra ground wire between the block and a suspension turret....I did that too.
You could test that yo have a good ground by using a jump lead between the neg battery terminal and the ends of those wires....if you reset the faults and the problems don't return t=with the jump lead in situ its a poor ground.
There are of course many other issues it could be......but I find that these issues are often caused by the simplest of things.