Recently I was faced with several power issues with my car and I thought it would be a good idea to trickle charge my battery because I hadn't driven the car for almost 2 weeks. Like an idiot, I reversed polarity on the battery when reconnecting the terminals and hence a lot of problems.
Long story short, I had a new alternator fitted on the advice of a breakdown engineer. But the auto mechanic who assisted in the installation of the alternator said it was my main fuse which had blown, the 120 Amp, which powers the alternator. In fact he said that it was unnecessary for me to have the alternator fitted in the first place. This was the reason he said that my car kept breaking down.
Anyway that's by the by really although I was annoyed at the breakdown engineer from the AA for what should have been a routine test that he failed to perform. After the fuse was changed the car ran fine but the electrics remain damaged. The dashboard does not illuminate, the stereo doesn't work and neither does the dash cam.
Most importantly though, the back lights do not work which mean I cannot take it on the road.
The other day I tested all the fuses in the car and found that all of them had continuity. I then tested the voltage and almost every function was ruining below 12 volts. On average arround 11.75 which obviously is too low.
I am not very experienced with mechanics at all but I like to try and fix things for myself when I can. I feel now that I am a little out of my depth. I used various AI programs for advice and it seems now that this maybe something to do with wiring and various other parts that I have no experience of dealing with before. I recently tried fitting a crankshaft sensor but in the end I had to enlist the services of a professional to do the job correctly.
Now Grok is telling me to check ground connections, BCM module and fuseboard input, but doesn't properly explain how I should go about doing this.
Vehicle in question is a Kia Rio 2005 mk2. 39000 miles on the clock.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be gratefully appreciated.
Rob.
Long story short, I had a new alternator fitted on the advice of a breakdown engineer. But the auto mechanic who assisted in the installation of the alternator said it was my main fuse which had blown, the 120 Amp, which powers the alternator. In fact he said that it was unnecessary for me to have the alternator fitted in the first place. This was the reason he said that my car kept breaking down.
Anyway that's by the by really although I was annoyed at the breakdown engineer from the AA for what should have been a routine test that he failed to perform. After the fuse was changed the car ran fine but the electrics remain damaged. The dashboard does not illuminate, the stereo doesn't work and neither does the dash cam.
Most importantly though, the back lights do not work which mean I cannot take it on the road.
The other day I tested all the fuses in the car and found that all of them had continuity. I then tested the voltage and almost every function was ruining below 12 volts. On average arround 11.75 which obviously is too low.
I am not very experienced with mechanics at all but I like to try and fix things for myself when I can. I feel now that I am a little out of my depth. I used various AI programs for advice and it seems now that this maybe something to do with wiring and various other parts that I have no experience of dealing with before. I recently tried fitting a crankshaft sensor but in the end I had to enlist the services of a professional to do the job correctly.
Now Grok is telling me to check ground connections, BCM module and fuseboard input, but doesn't properly explain how I should go about doing this.
Vehicle in question is a Kia Rio 2005 mk2. 39000 miles on the clock.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be gratefully appreciated.
Rob.
